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Commission To Vote Over Referring Former Ministers To Supreme State Council

18.12.2014 18:56

A parliamentary commission established to look into claims of corruption against four former ministers will vote on Monday over whether the ex-ministers will be referred to the Supreme State Council. Speaking with Today's Zaman, Erdal Aksünger, the Republican People's Party's (CHP) member of the parliamentary.

A parliamentary commission established to look into claims of corruption against four former ministers will vote on Monday over whether the ex-ministers will be referred to the Supreme State Council.

Speaking with Today's Zaman, Erdal Aksünger, the Republican People's Party's (CHP) member of the parliamentary Corruption Investigation Commission, said voting will take place at the commission with regards to whether each former minister facing corruption and bribery allegations will be referred to the Supreme State Council.

The Supreme State Council is the title the Constitutional Court assumes when it tries top state officials.

Four former ministers -- Economy Minister Zafer Çağlayan, Interior Minister Muammer Güler, EU Affairs Minister Egemen Bağış and Environment and Urban Planning Minister Erdoğan Bayraktar -- left their posts after they were implicated in a major corruption and bribery investigation that became public on Dec. 17, 2013.

Stating that the parliamentary graft commission has only been able to have 10 meetings to date due to pressure from the government, Aksünger said: “If the commission was able to work every day and prepare 15 expert reports instead of just one, there would be a healthier result. We have always voiced that this work [of the commission] was not very satisfactory. If the commission was able to work properly, we should have been able to listen to [the testimonies of] hundreds of people instead of being able to listen to only a few people. The documents that have not reached the commission of course raise questions.”

Noting that the commission members from the ruling party were under pressure from the government, Aksünger maintained that he does not believe there is one Justice and Development Party (AK Party) member who is not under the pressure of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the former leader of the party.

According to Aksünger, the commission members from the ruling party had openly rejected the possibility of referring the former ministers to the Supreme State Council in earlier meetings, but did not clearly express their views at the latest commission meeting, which Aksünger views as a positive sign.

Aksünger also said the parliamentary commission will prepare a report after it conducts separate voting for each minister, adding that this report is expected to be completed on Jan. 10 and it will be presented to the Parliament Speaker's Office the same day. The Parliament Speaker's Office is also expected to refer the commission report to Parliament within 10 days.

According to the Dec. 17 graft probe, which was dropped by a prosecutor in October, a criminal organization allegedly headed by Iranian businessman Reza Zarrab is claimed to have distributed TL 137 million ($66 million) in bribes to the former economy, interior and EU affairs ministers, their sons and possibly a number of other bureaucrats in order to cloak fictitious exports and money laundering.

(Cihan/Today's Zaman)



 
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