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Erbakan |
ANKARA,
March 7 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Former Turkish Prime Minister
Necmettin Erbakan, found guilty of misusing state funds for parties, denied
any wrongdoing and appealed the verdict, immediately avoiding prison, news
agencies reported.
Erbakan’s
lawyer told the Turkish daily newspaper, Turkish Daily News, Thursday,
“the court has based its ruling on rather unserious investigations. It was
not proven that my client took part in any embezzling activities.”
It
is widely believed that Erbakan's trial is politically motivated. Many
international human rights organizations have condemned the trial, calling
upon the Turkish government to respect Erbakan's legal rights.
A
Turkish court sentenced the Turkish veteran politician Necmettin Erbakan to
more than two years in jail Wednesday on charges of embezzling funds from
his banned pro-Islamic political party.
Erbakan's
lawyers have denounced the verdict in a written statement and said they
would appeal against it. "We are deeply surprised at the conviction
given the lack of any forensic tests to determine whether the documents in
question were forged and the fact that our client's signature does not
appear on any single one of them," the statement said.
The
sentence, if upheld by the appeals court, will have grave consequences for
Erbakan's political career, as it will bar him from being a member of a
political party and running for elections.
Erbakan
served as Prime Minister until the military junta pressured him out of power
in 1997. The Constitutional Court banned his party in January 1998, accusing
it of undermining Turkey's secular system.
He
has led Turkey's Islamic movement for the past three decades, but was barred
from politics for five years, to end in 2003. The charge was "inciting
hatred" for a speech he gave in 1994. His one-year prison sentence
stemming from the conviction was suspended later that year after the
government passed a general amnesty.
Erbakan
and 78 other suspects were charged in 1998 after their Welfare Party (RP)
was banned for promoting anti-secular activities in Turkey, a mainly Muslim
country with a strictly secular regime.
In
line with Turkish law, the assets of the outlawed party were transferred to
the state treasury, which found that about one trillion Turkish lira (3.6
million dollars at the time) were missing.
The
party said it had transferred the money to its provincial branches, but
media reports claimed the money was embezzled in a bid to ensure that funds
were available for the creation of a new Islamic party after Welfare's
closure, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
An
Ankara criminal court said Wednesday that the party had forged 139 documents
to misuse the funds, adding that the party could not have carried out such
large transactions without Erbakan's knowledge.
The
court said it had been established beyond doubt that the money in question
never reached the party's provincial branches, but did not specify where it
had disappeared.
Erbakan,
76, was sentenced to two years and four months in jail, while two of his
close aides were acquitted. Nineteen other defendants were sentenced to 14
months in jail and 50 more were sentenced to one year for their roles in the
affair.
The
successor of his Welfare Party, the Virtue Party, was also outlawed for
anti-secular activities in June last year. Its members subsequently split
into two new parties, which now hold 81 seats in the 550-member parliament.
