As claims of Selahattin Demirtaş's potential release circulate, a notable statement from the MHP: It coincides with the anniversary of the Demirtaş ruling!

MHP Deputy Chairman and Head of Legal and Election Affairs Feti Yıldız shared his views on the criminal justice system and recent changes to the Law on the Council of Judges and Prosecutors (HSK) with the public through a post on his social media account.

In his statement, Yıldız emphasized that a “reasoned decision” is indispensable in judgments rendered by courts. Yıldız stated, “Reasoning is a necessity in modern legal systems. A judgment without reasoning is not respectable.”

TIMING OF THE MESSAGE DREW ATTENTION

The timing of Yıldız's statement was found to be remarkable. This is because the statement coincided with the anniversary of the 46-year and 6-month prison sentence given to former HDP Co-Chair Selahattin Demirtaş.

Despite a year having passed since the verdict against Demirtaş was delivered, the reasoned decision has still not been written. For this reason, Yıldız's emphasis on a “reasoned decision” was interpreted by the public in connection with this case.

On the other hand, claims that Selahattin Demirtaş would be released have recently come to the agenda during the new political opening process initiated by the MHP.

In the statement he made, Yıldız used the following expressions:

According to the criminal justice system, which consists of abstract expressions, it is essential that practitioners evaluating concrete events know the legislation well and are sensitive to human rights.

If the purpose in an investigation and prosecution can be achieved with a measure that involves less interference with rights and freedoms, this should suffice.

Undoubtedly, limitations on individual rights and freedoms must be appropriate, necessary, and proportionate. Decisions concerning individual liberty and security should not be established with general, stereotypical, and non-individualized abstract definitions.

Reasoning is a necessity in modern legal systems.

Courts are obliged to concretize the decisions they have made in legal and material terms with the reasoning they provide.

Reasoning aims to satisfy reason, logic, and conscience. It is the reasoning that humanizes, makes independent, and makes a judgment respectable.

While writing a reasoned decision is a duty for judicial authorities, it is a fundamental right that must be protected for individuals in the context of the right to a fair trial.

The purpose of criminal proceedings is to reach the material truth. Material truth must be based on concrete data by overcoming all kinds of doubt. For a document submitted to the file to be evaluated as evidence, it must be;

realistic, confirmatory of the event, important in terms of proof, not contrary to the law, common, and scientific.

Yıldız also recalled that in the regulations regarding HSK membership, presidency of the council, and distribution of duties, the phrase “relevant Deputy Minister of Justice” was changed to “Undersecretary of the Ministry of Justice.” Emphasizing that the office of the undersecretary was re-established with this change, Yıldız said, “Institutional memory will be better preserved.”

Bringing up the differences in practices regarding the criminal justice system and the need for reform, Yıldız drew attention to the need for unity in practice with the words, “Complaints are being made that different release periods for certain crimes in practice are applied differently by the Public Prosecutor's Offices carrying out the execution or by the execution judgeships reviewing objections, and that conditional release periods and release periods based on merit are regulated differently.”