Justice And Development Party Is Not Closed, But Fined

The Constitutional Court did not close the Justice and Development Party (AKP), but cut its share of the Treasury Aid by half. Six members voted for its closing, four members for cutting the Treasury Aid and president of the court Haşim Kılıç voted against closing it.

Ankara - BİA News Center
30 July 2008, Wednesday

President of the Constitutional Court Haşim Kılıç announced the result of the closure case for the Justice and Development Party (AKP) today at 18:15. The court decided to cut AKP’s share of the Treasury Aid by half. 

He said, “The AKP was not closed. Six people voted for its closing. Four people voted for cutting the Treasury Aid by half and one person voted against the closure.

Kılıç also added that since there was no closure decision, the party members could not be banned from politics, either.

The vote against the closure came from president of the court Kılıç. Seven votes were required for the closure.

AKP will lose 23 million YTL

The AKP was to receive 46,7 million YTL from the Treasury Aid allocated for the parties that pass the required 10 % election barrage.  With this decision, it will lose half of this amount and receive 23, 35 million YTL  instead(about 11,5 Euro).

Kılıç: The politicians should solve it through compromise

Kılıç said the following in his announcement:

- Turkey’s agenda suddenly became the cases in the Constitutional Court. This has had economic and social consequences.

- During the case process, we were insulted by some journalists. We are sorry for this. We did not plan our process according to the critiques from outside and we will not in future, either.

- We were aware of the significance of the case. We had to be careful and we were careful. The rapporteur was very experienced and therefore he prepared his report quickly. He did not do it alone; they were three people.

- We have problems regarding closing parties, but the necessary democratic constitutional changes are not being done. They are remembered only when there are cases about them. We are asking the politicians one more time that if there is a problem in this area, our wish is that this is solved through compromise.  (EÜ-TK/EZÖ/TB)

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