Prime Minister May Abolish Specially Authorized Courts

An article stipulating the abolition of Turkey's highly controversial specially authorized courts may enter the Third Judicial Reform Package pending in Parliament, following a directive issued by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, according to Nuray Babacan's news story from the daily Hürriyet.

A motion is thus to be added into the package for this purpose, while Parliament is set to make its decision over the judicial reform bill before it enters summer recess on July 1.

The Cabinet has already met over the issue, while the subject also came up at the Central Executive Board (MYK) of the incumbent Justice and Development Party (AKP) earlier this week, according to reports.

A commission presided over by Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdağ consequently started working over the matter, following the prime minister's directive.

"As far as I know, there are two articles in the Third Judicial Package pertaining to article 250 and its follow-up. The work is still underway," Bozdağ said.

The commission's work is particularly focused on the question of which courts will continue to oversee those trials that are currently underway. "Regional courts" will thus be formed to take over suits pertaining to "catalogue crimes," while certain courts that are currently in existence will also handle some cases.

The work for the abolition of specially authorized courts is set to be completed until the start of this weekend.

Deputy PM Arınç: "Let us wait until Saturday"

Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç said he did not know how far the work on the abolition of specially authorized courts had advanced.

"As such, there is a possibility that this matter - said to have been excluded from the Third and Fourth Judicial Packages - may come around if it has reached a maturing point. The current pace of the work may lead to other evaluations, however. The possibility of it being true is very weak. We all need to follow on Saturday [how] the Third Judicial Package reaches a conclusion," he said.

Deputy Prime Minister Arınç also said he did not know exactly what sort of changes Prime Minister Erdoğan had requested on the issue of specially authorized courts and the 250th, 251st and 252nd articles of the Turkish Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure.

"Specially authorized courts have no place in democracies. These are courts for [security] operations; [they are] courts of martial law. Specially authorized courts should be abolished," Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the head of the main opposition People's Republican Party (CHP,) also said in Parliament on Wednesday. (AS)