CHP calls for the abolition of the crime of 'insulting the President': 'Political criticism has been criminalized'

CHP İzmir MP and member of the TBMM Constitutional Committee Sevda Erdan Kılıç has submitted a legislative proposal to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey to abolish the crime of “insulting the President” contained in Article 299 of the Turkish Penal Code.

Kılıç stated that the regulation in question is contrary to both the Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights, emphasizing that the article must be repealed immediately.

'TENS OF THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE ARE BEING TRIED FOR THIS CRIME'

Making statements on the subject, Sevda Erdan Kılıç expressed that this regulation affects broad segments of society:

"Not ten, not a hundred, not a thousand... Tens of thousands of cases. In this country, from teachers to students, journalists to artists, members of parliament to party leaders, from 16-year-old children to 78-year-old women, tens of thousands of defendants from seven to seventy are being tried for the crime of insulting the President. Enough is enough!"

'POLITICAL CRITICISM HAS BEEN CRIMINALIZED'

Kılıç reminded that the office of the President should be impartial, but that this situation changed with the constitutional amendment made in 2017. Stating that the President is now also the chairman of a political party, she expressed that criticisms are being silenced through criminal sanctions.

Kılıç said, "It is a crime to respond to the President, who, every time he takes the podium in his capacity as AKP Chairman, uses exclusionary and marginalizing rhetoric against everyone who is not like him and says everything imaginable to the opposition, or to criticize him for his actions!"

Touching upon the stance of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on this issue, Kılıç recalled that the ECHR has stated that heads of state should not receive special protection from criticism. However, she stated that freedom of criticism is still restricted in Turkey and that Article 299 of the TPC is one of the biggest obstacles to freedom of expression.

'THE CONCEPT OF AN IMPARTIAL PRESIDENCY HAS ENDED'

While detailing the justifications for the proposal she submitted to the TBMM, Sevda Erdan Kılıç pointed out that the office of the Presidency is no longer in a position above politics. She noted that since the 1961 Constitution, Presidents had their ties to their parties severed, but this principle was abandoned with the constitutional amendment made in 2017.

Reminding that executive power was granted to the President with this amendment, Kılıç made the following assessments:

"In the previous system, the President was seen as an impartial office that embraced the entire society. However, the President is now a figure at the very center of active politics. Therefore, protecting a person who is involved in political debates from criticism with a special legal article is contrary to the principles of a democratic state governed by the rule of law."

Kılıç emphasized that after the constitutional amendment, Article 299 of the TPC turned into a political weapon and criminalized criticism, stating that Turkey would take an important step in the field of freedom of expression with the abolition of this article.

News Source: 12punto