Istanbul court cancels retrial of jailed opposition MP

By Muhammed Enes Can, Huseyin Kulaoglu and Mustafa Hatipoglu

ISTANBUL (AA) - The 14th Heavy Penal Court in Istanbul remitted an appeals court order for the retrial of opposition deputy Enis Berberoglu for being "out of order and against the law".

In June, Berberoglu was sentenced to 25 years in prison after being convicted of leaking state secrets.

Istanbul's regional court of appeals ordered on Oct. 9 for the retrial of opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) deputy; his case was later forwarded to Istanbul’s 14th Heavy Penal Court for review.

"The appeals court merely put itself in the place of Supreme Court of Appeals, and intervened in our court's independence and freedom to make decision.

“Though the regional court of appeals’ Chief Prosecutor's Office did not have the authority to object the decision, it even had not been in the face of faulty practice and felt obligatory to criticize the points we expressed when indicating 'seen' inscription," the penal court said.

The court remitted retrial of Berberoglu due to "absolute contrarieties to law" and is sentence to 25 years behind bars remains.

He was sentenced to 25 years in June 2017 after he was convicted of leaking details of the “MIT trucks case” to a newspaper.

The penal court found him guilty of leaking to the Cumhuriyet newspaper footage of National Intelligence Organization (MIT) trucks that were stopped en route to Syria in January 2014.

In 2014, the FETO-linked gendarme officers had stopped MIT trucks on their way to Syria, despite government orders to let them pass.

Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) and its U.S.-based leader, Fetullah Gulen, orchestrated the defeated coup on July 15, 2016 that left 250 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured.