Turkey court delays ruling on opposition leader amid political crisis
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The leader of main opposition Republican People's Party Ozgur Ozel addressing his supporters during a rally in Ankara on Sept 14.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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ANKARA - A Turkish court delayed on Sept 15 a decision on whether to oust the main opposition leader and annul his party’s 2023 congress over alleged irregularities, in a case that has already deepened the country’s political crisis.
The judge in Ankara adjourned the case to Oct 24.
Hundreds of Republican People’s Party (CHP) members, including President Tayyip Erdogan’s main political rival, Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, have been jailed pending trial in a separate, sprawling legal probe into alleged graft and terrorism links.
If the court rules in October to annul the CHP’s congress, that would effectively strip Mr Ozgur Ozel, the party chairman, of the title that he won there.
The case, seen as a test of Turkey’s shaky balance between democracy and autocracy, threatens to deepen disarray and infighting in the opposition camp, boosting Mr Erdogan’s chances of extending his 22-year rule.
The centrist CHP, which denies the charges against it, is level with Mr Erdogan’s Islamist-rooted, conservative AK Party (AKP) in polls. Mr Ozel, 50, its combative, hoarse-voiced leader, has risen to prominence since Imamoglu’s detention.
Anti-Erdogan street protests have flared in recent days ahead of the court ruling, and the case has badly rattled Turkish assets and the lira currency. The lira strengthened a little after the adjournment decision on Sept 15.
The opposition, human rights groups and some European leaders say the crackdown on the CHP is politically motivated and anti-democratic, charges rejected by the government, which says that Turkey’s judiciary is independent. REUTERS
