Turkey's Erdogan Takes New Power Over Judiciary Branch

Turkey’s Islamist-controlled government, led by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, passed a new regulation which significantly increases the power of the justice minister over the country’s highest judicial body, the Supreme Council of Judges and Prosecutors.

This news comes on the heels of sweeping arrests Erdogan ordered of journalists critical of his rule.
Posts in judiciary bodies in Turkey have traditionally been filled with supporters of Erdogan's rival, Fethullah Gulen, a powerful Turkish imam living in exile in the U.S.

The new law mandates that the justice minister will now preside over the Supreme Council and set the agenda, time and date of the body’s General Assembly, whose function is to elect the members of the Supreme Court of Appeals and the Council of State. In addition, as part of the justice minister’s increased powers, all the elected members to these bodies must be approved by the justice minister.
The justice minister will also now have the sole power to release statements to the media regarding the meetings of the Supreme Council.

In other developments, a high court overturned a regulation instituted by the government in the wake of the corruption scandal that broke one year ago. At the time, key government figures and businessmen were accused of graft, allegations that had the potential to bring down Erdogan’s government.

Hence, a regulation was passed which required police chiefs to notify their superiors of any investigation begun by prosecutors, essentially allowing the government to control the investigation of any individual, according to Turkish lawyer Melik Bayat.

Previously, once an investigation was initiated, the police involved in the probe would work with the prosecutor, essentially acting as “judiciary police” under the purview of the judiciary branch of government.

The new regulation – enacted just four days after the December 17, 2013 graft probe become public -- put the power of the investigation into the executive branch, which legal experts described as a violation of both existing laws and the Constitution.

“From now on, if there is another graft investigation targeting the government, the provincial police chief will have to inform his superiors from the very beginning. There is no other example of this in the world,” said retired public prosecutor Gultekin  Avcı.

Now, one year later, the Supreme Council decided that the new regulation was indeed illegal.

Labels: Crisis Management, Erdogan, Extremism, News Media, Political Realities, Repression, Turkey

posted by Pieface @ Thursday, December 18, 2014