Turkey: Investigation into suspended judges to continue

ANKARA

Turkey’s top judicial board has ruled that an investigation into two judges, who were suspended after they decided to release suspects in a "parallel state" case, should continue.

The Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors, or the HSYK, decided on Tuesday that Metin Ozcelik, judge of the Istanbul 29nd Penal Court of First Instance and Mustafa Baser, judge of the Istanbul 32nd Penal Court of First Instance, should continue to be investigated after they were suspended a day earlier.

Ozcelik and Baser were suspended on grounds of “damaging the reputation and influence of the judiciary” after they attempted on Saturday to order the release of Hidayet Karaca, the chairman of the Samanyolu Media Group, and 75 others, including some police chiefs, being probed in a "parallel state" case.

Istanbul judge Erdogan Simsek also declared on Tuesday that the "unauthorized" release decisions were "null and void", confirming a similar declaration by Istanbul's 10th Penal Court of Peace on Sunday.

The ongoing "parallel state" case was launched on Dec. 14, 2014, against senior media figures and police officers in 13 provinces across Turkey for allegedly being affiliated with what the government describes as a "parallel state" - a purported group of bureaucrats embedded in the country's institutions, including the judiciary and the police which the Turkish government alleges are plotting to undermine it. 

Members of the “parallel state” - which refers to the so-called "Gulen movement" allegedly involving U.S.-based preacher Fetullah Gulen and his supporters - are also accused of orchestrating a corruption probe which targeted high-ranking Turkish officials in Dec. 2013.

Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu both slammed the judges' order for the suspects in the “parallel state” case to be freed, claiming the decision "came from Pennsylvania", referring to Fethullah Gulen.

Karaca has been charged with "managing a terrorist organization”.