The Turkish Constitutional Court upheld on Saturday the appeals of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which has challenged the constitutionality of a law approved by the parliament last month on the execution of sentences.
The law was conceived as a measure to stem the spread of the coronavirus in the country’s overcrowded prisons. It included the possibility of early parole, but political prisoners including politicians and journalists were unable to benefit from the law.
CHP has called for amending the law that would allow for the release of 90,000 prisoners.
The Turkish Constitutional Court approved the party’s call for introducing amendments to the law, saying it did not detect any procedural deficiency in the file and that it would study it and issue its rule, without setting a date.
Meanwhile, the Turkish authorities have continued to clamp down on media outlets, mainly television stations that host figures critical of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The Radio and Television Supreme Council slapped fines on two more stations, Habertürk TV and Halk TV, for hosting opposition figures, including the leader of İYİ Party, Meral Aksener, who accused Erdogan of “hegemony and aggression.”
“Don’t you see that banning Habertürk for hosting me, affects people’s livelihoods?” Aksener asked Erdogan in a Twitter post.
Canan Kaftancıoglu also slammed Erdogan after Halk TV’s program, which hosted her, was banned.
She said the president’s regime would collapse in the parliamentary elections whether they were held on time in 2023 or there were early polls.
