Constitutional Court (AYM) decided that it is a right violation to sentence Republican People’s Party (CHP) Chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu to compensation due to his statements on the claims of corruption and bribery at Kayseri Metropolitan Municipality, issuing 20 thousand TL compensation to be paid to Kılıçdaroğlu. Another application by Kılıçdaroğlu, which objected to his penalty of 12 thousand TL of compensation for former Kayseri Mayor Mehmet Özhaseki, was denied due to ‘time limitation.’
Kılıçdaroğlu had been sentenced to a total of 25 thousand TL compensation in 7 different lawsuits filed against him due to his speeches on TV shows, during press statements, his party’s group meetings and the GNAT General Assembly in 2010.
In another decree, the high court issued 20 thousand TL compensation to be paid to People’s Democratic Party (HDP) Siirt MP Meral Danış Beştaş due to a violation of her right to personal freedom and safety. Beştaş had been taken into custody due to participating in the meeting organized by her party’s Central executive Board (MYK) in 2014 for Kobani under attack by terrorist organization ISIS, as well as in the demonstration organized to protest the curfews and operations in Sur district of Diyarbakır. Later arrested, Beştaş had remained under arrest for about three months.
The Constitutional Court further issued that it is a violation of freedom of expression and press freedom to sentence Mehmet Doğan to compensation due to ‘insult’ in 2010, through his expressions in the column published on Vakit Daily with the title, “The last Syrtos in HSYK.”
The court indicated that the column ironically criticized Supreme Council of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) savings before the public elections and stated that public officers “must tolerate criticisms more than people who are not publicly well-known” and that “a public officer must be evaluated within an opinion that corresponds to the duty he/she conducts as well as the position he/she holds.”
02.08.2018
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