Turkey’s Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), an ally of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), has decided to withdraw a bill granting amnesty to nearly 160,000 prisoners, MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli said in a statement, Turkish media reported.
Bahçeli said they did not intend to contradict their ally, the AKP, according to the statement.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan publicly rejected amnesty for prisoners on several occasions before the MHP bill was introduced on Sept. 24.
Erdoğan said their intent was to grant amnesty only to convicts who had committed crimes against the state, underlining that perpetrators of crimes against individuals cannot receive amnesty.