Prof. Adem Sözüer: Threat to state’s legal authority and judiciary’s prestige

He assessed Istanbul Serious Crime Court’s dismissal for the second time of the application over detained journalist Şahin Alpay, whose release the Constitutional Court (CC) had ordered on rights violation grounds.

 Sözüer, assessing on his personal Twitter account the decision by Serious Crime Court No 13, which included the view, “It is legally impossible to comply with the application for release” in the text of its decision and criticised the CC alleging that “if the reasons were set out in the detention and continuation of detention order this would constitute comments reflecting bias,’ made the following comment:

 “We criticise the Constitutional Court over matters such as approving the administration’s power to make criminal legislation, annulling the offence of child sexual exploitation saying that the punishment is excessive and dwelling on the merits too much over detention. But! Failure to comply with its ruling and its systematic vitiation will seriously undermine the state’s legal authority and the judiciary’s prestige.”

 Following the dismissal by Serious Crime Courts No 13 and 26 of applications for release in the wake of the CC’s ruling on 11 January, citing the decision not having been promulgated in the Official Gazette and the reasoned decision not being forthcoming, Sözüer had commented, “The Code of Criminal Procedure and Constitutional Court case law says, ‘With detention, strong suspicion of guilt must be demonstrated, otherwise it is a rights violation.’ Today’s ruling is also valid to those in a similar situation. The ending of the detention measure is not acquittal. The trial continues. Attacking the CC without even seeing the reasons is wrong.”

http://www.cumhuriyet.com.tr/haber/turkiye/904479/Prof._Adem_Sozuer__AYM_nin_kararina_uymama_devletin_hukuki_otoritesi_ile_yargi_itibarini_agir_sarsar.html