Turkey’s Court of Cassation may rule to keep Can Atalay behind bars despite his election to parliament, as the case the lawyer and activist was jailed over was not covered by parliamentary immunity, Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç told reporters on Wednesday.
“The Parliamentary Speaker’s Office will take action in accordance with the legal process,” Tunç said. “As you know, the Gezi case is one of those that fall outside the scope of immunity.”
Atalay was convicted to 18 years in prison last year over attempting to topple the government, a crime that Tunç argued fell under Turkish constitution’s Article 14 that stipulates no rights or freedoms could be used towards activities that aim to eliminate the republic or the democratic order.
However, the Turkish Constitutional Court has a previous ruling over MP Enis Berberoğlu that the continued imprisonment of elected representatives violates legislative immunity.
“The justice minister called Can Atalay a convict in a case that is still at the appeals stage. He has finalised the trial in his own head, and issued a ruling in the court’s stead. Is this not a direct order to the judiciary?” Workers’ Party of Turkey (TİP) Caucus Member Özgür Urfa said in response.
The newly elected MP played an active role during the 2013 Gezi Park Protests, which began as a small sit-in to protect the namesake park in central Istanbul but quickly snowballed into a months-long mass movement that saw at least four million people take to the streets throughout the country due to the harsh government response.
At the time, Atalay worked as the head lawyer of the Istanbul Chamber of Architects. He has since represented grieving families after the Soma Mining Disaster and the Çorlu High-Speed Train Accident in 2018, which caused the death of a total of 326 miners and commuters. He was elected to parliament from the southern Hatay province from the TİP.
Atalay’s right to participate in parliamentary activity must not be prevented, bar associations from 51 provinces said in a joint statement on Wednesday.
“Under the scope of the Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights, the fulfilment of judicial procedures as per the Penal Code is an essential part of the rule of law in a democratic state,” the bar associations said. “We call on authorities to urgently fulfil their duties.”
