Warfare between judiciary and government

Ahmet Şık, Niyazi Dalyancı The simmering conflict between the nation’s judiciary and the government turned into open warfare this week with the Justice Minister accusing wholesale the judges serving on the Supreme Court (Yargitay) and Supreme Administrative Court (Danistay) of breaking the law and interfering with the free functioning of jurisdiction. At the center of the controversy was a confrontation between two prosecutors in the eastern towns of Erzurum and Erzincan. The legal battle between the two members of judiciary reached its peak when the plenipotentiary prosecutor in Erzurum managed to bring about the arrest of the Erzincan prosecutor accusing him of staging plans drafted by the suspects in the Ergenekon case to topple the government of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan. Osman Sanal, the plenipotentiary prosecutor in Erzurum interrogated Ilhan Cihaner, the chief prosecutor in the nearby town of Erzincan also ordering the police to search the latter’s home and offices and asked for his arrest, which was promptly carried out by the court. Hours after Cihaner’s arrest, the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) in Ankara, which is functioning as the supervisory body of Turkey’s judiciary, announced that the authority of Osman Sanal, the plenipotentiary prosecutor in Erzurum and his three assistants has been rescinded and demanded an investigation against them for overstepping their jurisdictional powers. The legal argument put forward by the HSYK was, first class judges and prosecutors can only be tried for offenses related with their duties by the Supreme Court according to law. HSYK claimed that Sanal and his assistants were not competent authorities to ask for Cihaner’s arrest. Prosecutor Sanal had also summoned Gen. Saldiray Berk, the commander of Turkey’s 3rd Army that has its headquarters also in Erzincan, but the general responded by saying he cannot come to Erzurum because he is […]















