An unusual legal battle took place in Turkey on the night of April 25, defined by some as “legal chaos.” An Istanbul court made an unexpected, hasty decision to free some 75 policemen and a journalist, who had been in prison for months without being sentenced. Their only crime: being members of the “parallel state,” allegedly formed by the Islamic community led by Fethullah Gulen. According to the release decision, which was composed in the middle of the night, the detained had to be freed immediately. But the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government was alarmed and employed bureaucratic delaying tactics to suspend the decision. Soon, another Istanbul court made a decision claiming that the initial decision to free the 76 suspects was not properly authorized and thus was invalid.
In the end, the suspects remained in prison. But Turkey’s ongoing battle over the judiciary only got more bitter. The pro-Gulen media, along with some other opposition voices, condemned the government for blocking a legitimate decision by a legitimate court. This, they said, proved that Turkey’s rule of law is now totally destroyed by an authoritarian government that curbs justice at its will. Meanwhile, the government and the pro-government media said the exact opposite. According to them, the “parallel state” had organized an “operation” in the judiciary to illegally free its members, but the patriotic elements of the judiciary had averted this “plot.”
The latter argument further won the day a few days later, when the judge that gave the decision to release the suspects, Mustafa Baser, and the judge who had given the decision to authorize him, Metin Ozcelik, were arrested. The prosecutor that ordered the arrest of these two judges, which is a very uncommon thing even for Turkey, said to the press that they “abused their power on the orders of an illegal organization,” the latter being the pro-Gülen network within the state.
For more impartial observers, the scene was, and still is, more complicated. Here are some points that explain why.
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