Fatma Zibak
An İstanbul prosecutor who exposed alleged corruption in Turkey’s judicial system in a letter to the country’s highest judicial body last year has been appointed as a member of Turkey’s top appeals court, according to Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç.
Tunç announced on his X account on Wednesday the appointment of İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor İsmail Uçar along with three others as members of the Supreme Court of Appeals.
A letter sent to the Council of Judges and Prosecutors’ (HSK) secretary-general by Uçar in October in which he detailed allegations of bribery, nepotism and other irregularities in the judicial system sent shockwaves within the judiciary, which many say has suffered significant erosion and lost its independence under the rule of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Following Uçar’s letter, Tunç said at the time that the HSK had initiated an investigation into the allegations and that an inspector had been assigned to the case.
Uçar’s promotion to the top appeals court has come as a surprise to many since people leveling corruption claims or investigating corruption are generally punished either by getting fired and jailed or sometimes both.
However, some have claimed that Uçar’s unexpected promotion is a covert attempt to silence him.
Ali Yıldız, a Brussels-based lawyer, told Turkish Minute that instead of thoroughly investigating Uçar’s allegations of corruption within the judiciary, the HSK elected him as a judge of the Supreme Court of Appeals, an unexpected development.
“This appears to be a strategic move by the HSK to cover up allegations of corruption by promoting a prosecutor to a higher judicial position, potentially ensuring his silence on the corrupt actions of members of the judiciary,” said Yıldız.
In his letter Uçar alleged that decisions were made by İstanbul’s criminal courts of peace at the Anadolu Courthouse to block access to internet content and to release suspects in exchange for money.
He called on the HSK to take necessary action for the dismantling of such entities, whether organized or not, that “condone such a heinous evil as drugs, release organization leaders without even putting them on trial, create an empire of fear and subject our colleagues to mobbing and attempts to influence trials.”
Uçar’s allegations have only led to the suspension of one judge so far. In November the HSK suspended Sidar Demiroğlu, the presiding judge of the İstanbul 21st High Criminal Court, who allegedly ruled for unlawful access bans on some online content and helped in the release of people accused of drug trafficking from jail, according to Uçar’s letter.
Bekir Altun, president of the İstanbul Judicial Commission, who faced accusations of corruption in Uçar’s letter, remains on the job and had an access ban imposed on dozens of online articles on the corruption allegations about him.
It is not yet known whether Uçar will stand behind his corruption allegations after his appointment to the Supreme Court of Appeals, given his past efforts as one of the prosecutors involved in closing infamous corruption investigations in late 2013.
The December 17-25 bribery and corruption investigations shook the country back in 2013. The probe implicated, among others, the family members of four cabinet ministers as well as the children of then-prime minister and current president Erdoğan.
The police officers, prosecutors and judges involved in the investigations were accused of staging a “coup” against the government, were sacked from their jobs and sent to prison.
The erosion in the rule of law in Turkey worsened after a failed coup in July 2016, when more than 4,000 judges and prosecutors were removed under the pretext of an anti-coup fight.
The AKP government is accused of replacing the purged judicial members with young and inexperienced judges and prosecutors who have close links to the AKP.
In a development that confirmed the erosion of the Turkish judiciary, Turkey was ranked 117th among 142 countries in the rule of law index published by the World Justice Project (WJP) in late October, dropping one place in comparison to last year.