Turkey’s Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSK) has reshuffled 3,320 judges and prosecutors under a recently issued decree, Turkish media reports said on Thursday.
Out of the 3,320 judges and prosecutors reshuffled, 301 were from administrative courts, while the remainder had served in criminal courts.
Hadi Salihoğlu, the chief public prosecutor at the İstanbul Regional Court of Justice, who on Wednesday sought permission to retire one day after the arrest of his security guard as part of a police operation against a religious cult in Turkey, was replaced by Metin Saruhan, the deputy chief public prosecutor of the İstanbul Anadolu region.
The name of the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) was changed to the HSK and its number of members was dropped to 13 from 22 after a constitutional referendum in April 2017 was approved with 51.4 percent of the vote, paving the way for the country to shift to an executive presidency.
The Turkish government is being widely criticized for taking the judiciary under its control and imposing pressure on its members to make politically motivated decisions. The government has removed thousands of judges and prosecutors from their posts on coup charges since a failed coup attempt on July 15, 2016.