Turkish prosecutor wants opposition leader’s immunity scrapped

A Turkish prosecutor this week demanded parliament strip opposition leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu of immunity from prosecution for comments he made about a controversial constitutional referendum, raising the specter that the government’s broad crackdown could now extend to its main political challenger.

It is not the first prosecutor complaint against Kilicdaroglu, chairman of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), parliament’s second-biggest grouping. This one, however, coincides with heightened political tensions in recent weeks, sparked by Kilicdaroglu’s dogged allegations of financial impropriety against the government.

According to media reports, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement released Wednesday that it had submitted a legal file to parliament concerning Kilicdaroglu's criticism of the state election board’s decision to count non-validated ballots during an April referendum that expanded presidential powers. The prosecutor also submitted complaints on unrelated matters against two other CHP lawmakers, including the outspoken Sezgin Tanrikulu, and two members of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP).

“These motions are an attempt to engineer politics with the hand of the judiciary, which the government controls,” said Tanrikulu, who faces at least six separate prosecutor complaints. “The files are not based on a crime or an insult, but solely on our political criticism.” The latest complaint is for comments he made about civilian deaths caused by unmanned aerial vehicles.