PodcastTurkey's nationalist party backtracks on amnesty bill
Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli on Dec. 4 announced that the party placed its amnesty proposal on hold. “I would like to state that as of today, we placed our Sept. 24, 2018-dated proposal on hold for opposition and disagreeableness not to take place under the roof of the People's Alliance and for the issue not to be exploited,” Bahçeli said in a written statement.
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Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli has announced that the party placed its amnesty bill on hold to avoid "opposition and disagreeableness under the roof of the People's Alliance,” referring an electoral alliance the MHP established last year with the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
“I would like to state that as of today, we placed our Sept. 24, 2018-dated proposal on hold for opposition and disagreeableness not to take place under the roof of the People's Alliance and for the issue not to be exploited,” Bahçeli said in a written statement on Dec. 4.
On. Sept. 24, 2018, the MHP submitted a draft bill seeking amnesty for some prisoners to the parliament speaker’s office, with party officials saying over 160,000 prisoners would “benefit” from the amnesty.
The MHP's call for an amnesty law came after Bahçeli paid a visit to Alaattin Çakıcı, a notorious convicted mafia leader, in a hospital in the Central Anatolian province of Kırıkkale on May 23, 2018. Çakıcı was at the time briefly taken to the hospital after falling ill in jail. He is currently serving multiple sentences in prison for murder, money laundering and leading an illegal armed group, and has been in jail since 2004.
The amnesty bill was however not completely endorsed by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who is also the chair of the AKP. Turkish media has reported Erdoğan told his executives during the party's Central Executive Board (MYK) meeting on Dec. 2 that he wanted the bill to exclude amnesty for prisoners who have been convicted for terrorism offenses, sexual assault, voluntary manslaughter, organized criminal activities, drug offenses as well as for habitual offenders. Erdoğan's demand was later conveyed to the MHP.
“The Nationalist Movement Party of course respects the President's decision…How our party looks at the issue of reduced sentence and what it aims for is known. But, a political and social picture which is suitable for misunderstandings and conflicting understandings has emerged,” Bahçeli said in his statement.