, for his recent remarks targeting İstanbul’s chief prosecutor over the removal and arrest of a party mayor, the T24 news website reported.){kind=link}
Turkish prosecutors have launched an investigation into Özgür Özel, leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), for his recent remarks targeting İstanbul’s chief prosecutor over the removal and arrest of a party mayor, the T24 news website reported.
The investigation, launched by the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, concerns remarks made by the CHP leader during a party meeting in Parliament on November 26 and a press statement he made today outside Marmara Prison after visiting Ahmet Özer, a democratically-elected mayor from the CHP who was arrested and subsequently removed from his post last month.
Özel is accused of “publicly insulting a public official in connection with their duties” and “targeting individuals involved in counterterrorism efforts.”
Özel has been criticizing Akın Gürlek, İstanbul’s chief public prosecutor, who is a former judge and deputy justice minister known for convicting dissidents in politically motivated trials, due to his controversial decisions.
He referred to Gürlek as “the executioner and mobile guillotine of the palace,” in reference to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, at his party’s meeting on Tuesday.
The CHP leader slammed the prosecutor again following a visit to Özer, the mayor of Esenyurt, İstanbul’s most densely populated district, who was arrested on terrorism-related charges in late October and subsequently removed from office.
“Akın Gürlek, who has trampled on justice in every court, … is now applying hostile law to our mayor, party member Ahmet Özer. … You can only burn as much ground as your weight allows,” Özel said, addressing the prosecutor.
He also called on Gürlek to return to the bounds of the law and the limits of the Constitution, urging him to refrain from committing crimes by following unlawful orders.
“If you confess to what you’ve done and resign, go practice law quietly somewhere else. … But don’t … gamble with a nation’s future. Don’t be a tool [for another]. I’m warning you,” Özel added.
The investigation into Özel comes at a time when he was at the center of criticism for allegedly aligning with President Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) government, including covering up its alleged corruption.
Although the CHP came in first in the March 31 local elections, Özel, who was elected party leader in November 2023, has been moderate in his criticism of the AKP government. Under the pretext of normalization in Turkish politics, Özel and Erdoğan paid visits to each other and avoided any harsh criticism, with detractors accusing Özel of yielding to Erdoğan.
Meanwhile, a detention warrant was issued for Osman Yalçın, deputy mayor of Esenyurt who oversaw key municipal departments during the tenure of Özer, as part of an ongoing investigation conducted by the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office.
A statement from the prosecutor’s office released on Friday said that Yalçın’s involvement in the alleged financing of a terrorist organization during Özer’s tenure is being examined.
Authorities have not yet located Yalçın, according to local media reports, with officials seizing mobile phones and digital materials he reportedly left behind.
A prosecutor targeting gov’t opponents
Gürlek, who earlier served as a high criminal court judge, is known for controversial rulings, including the sentencing of Kurdish leader Selahattin Demirtaş to four years, eight months in prison for spreading the propaganda of a terrorist organization and the sentencing of the CHP’s former İstanbul provincial chairman, Canan Kaftancıoğlu, to nine years, eight months due to her social media posts.
Gürlek was also the presiding judge of İstanbul’s 14th High Criminal Court, which defied a ruling of the Turkish Constitutional Court ordering that a lower court retry CHP deputy Enis Berberoğlu, claiming that the order for a retrial was “interference in the decision made within the jurisdiction of our court.”
In December 2022, the same court also rejected a motion for the release of prominent businessman and philanthropist Osman Kavala, who has been behind bars on a series of charges since 2017, when his lawyers took the case to an appeals court after the İstanbul 13th High Criminal Court extended his imprisonment.
Gürlek is also known for convicting some members of the group Academics for Peace who drew the ire of President Erdoğan by issuing a declaration demanding a peaceful solution to the country’s Kurdish issue and criticizing Turkish security forces for a heavy-handed response that saw citizens confined under long-lasting curfews in predominantly Kurdish cities under bombardment.
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 on 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 weakening 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 October 2024.