Turkish lawmaker Berberoglu: 'I want my case forgotten'

By Emin Avundukluoglu

ANKARA (AA) – A Turkish main opposition lawmaker who regained his deputyship last week under a court order and is facing a possible retrial said that he wants his case to be forgotten.

"I saw courts, prison, my deputyship was revoked. What are they going to do, will they set up a scaffold in front of this parliament and hang me, what can they do?” Enis Berberoglu, Istanbul lawmaker of the Republican People's Party (CHP), told reporters in parliament.

“I want to be forgotten. This is what can I do for this country at this age."

Berberoglu, 64, said justice won out when he was reinstated as a member of parliament after a decision by Istanbul’s 14th High Criminal Court.

"This case is important as it shows that such a thing is possible and that justice is being done in this country," he said.

A memorandum reinstating Berberoglu was read out in parliament after the court on Monday ordered the retrial and suspension of a previous sentence.

Last September Turkey's Constitutional Court ruled that Berberoglu's right to be elected and engage in political activities and right to personal liberty and security had been violated in an earlier trial in which he was convicted of leaking state secrets.

The high court sent a copy of the ruling to an Istanbul Court ordering a retrial, but in October the lower court said no retrial was needed.

- Lower and high courts

In its October ruling, the Istanbul court said it was the Constitutional Court's duty to identify the violation in the case and guide the court on how to address it.

It argued that the top court's order for a retrial was in "interference in the decision made within the jurisdiction of our court."

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

Gendarmerie officers affiliated with the Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) stopped the MIT trucks, despite government orders to let them pass.

FETO and its US-based leader, Fetullah Gulen, orchestrated a July 15, 2016, defeated coup in Turkey that left 251 people martyred and nearly 2,200 injured. The group is also accused of extensive infiltration of state institutions.