Turkey: Parliamentary immunity delays deputy's sentence

By Aylin Sirikli and Ferdi Turkten

ANKARA

A Turkish main opposition deputy has been released from custody pending the end of his tenure in parliament, a judicial source said on Thursday.

Turkey’s Supreme Court ruled that the sentence of Republican People's Party (CHP) lawmaker Enis Berberoglu be suspended until the end of his term as deputy, when his parliamentary immunity ends, said the source, who asked not to be named due to restrictions on speaking to the media.

In June 2017, Berberoglu was sentenced to 25 years in prison for leaking state secrets to a newspaper. The sentence was later affirmed by an appeals court.

Berberoglu was found guilty of leaking footage to a journalist showing National Intelligence Organization (MIT) trucks being stopped en route to Syria in January 2014.

In that incident, gendarmerie officers affiliated with the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) stopped the MIT trucks on their way to Syria, despite government orders to let them pass.

The FETO and its U.S.-based leader, Fetullah Gulen, orchestrated the defeated coup on July 15, 2016, leaving 251 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured.

By Aylin Sirikli and Ferdi Turkten

ANKARA

A Turkish main opposition deputy has been released from custody pending the end of his tenure in parliament, a judicial source said on Thursday.

In June 2017, Berberoglu was sentenced to 25 years in prison for leaking state secrets to a newspaper. The sentence was later affirmed by an appeals court.

Berberoglu was found guilty of leaking footage to a journalist showing National Intelligence Organization (MIT) trucks being stopped en route to Syria in January 2014.

In that incident, gendarmerie officers affiliated with the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) stopped the MIT trucks on their way to Syria, despite government orders to let them pass.

The FETO and its U.S.-based leader, Fetullah Gulen, orchestrated the defeated coup on July 15, 2016, leaving 251 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured.