President of the Amed Bar Association, Tahir Elçi, and members of the Bar executive council held a briefing meeting regarding the applications they had made to the nos. 5th and 6th High Criminal Courts asking for the release of five BDP (Peace and Democracy Party) Mps behind bars.

Elçi said that in the event of local courts giving opinions regarding the imprisoned BDP MPs adverse to the decision of the Constitutional Court they would be committing an offence, adding: "If the courts and prosecutors do not comply with this judgment we will go to the HSYK (High Council of Judges and Prosecutors)".

Elçi said that following the judgment of the Constitutional Court regarding CHP MP Mustafa Balbay, they had applied as lawyers for the BDP MPs to local courts for their release, but despite a week having passed they had yet to receive a reply.

Elçi added that; "There is a set procedure for dealing with a request for release. Prosecutors must prepare their opinion forthwith and submit it to the court, which must then make a judgment. We have learned that the prosecutors are waiting to receive the reasoned judgment from the Constitutional Court before making a decision. However, the judgment of the Constitutional Court is abundantly clear. The prosecutors can make a decision without waiting for the reasoned judgment to be published in the official gazette. There is no point in waiting when there is such a precedent judgment. It may be months before the reasoned judgment is published. In this case the elected deputies will have suffered a second instance of unjust treatment. We are not talking about any old court judgment, this is a Constitutional Court judgment. Its judgments are binding for all courts."

Elçi recalled that only one prosecutor had prepared an opinion regarding applications for release, adding: "The prosecutor's opinion regarding İbrahim Ayhan was very appropriate. As a bar association we agree with it absolutely. Courts must comply with this in the same way they did in the Balbay case. The Constitutional Court has taken a very important step in ending human rights violations and in opening the way to resolving existing social problems. It is not in accordance with law for local courts to hesitate in this matter."

If we detect negligence we shall go to the HSYK

Elçi said that they had gained the impression that there was a difference of opinion between the courts, adding: "We do not want to seek political reasoning in these files. We expect the courts to take notice of the rules and regulations when they reach judgments. We do not want to consider a situation where courts do not implement decisions. Non-compliance with Constitutional Court judgments is an offence. We hope this does not happen, as this would be shameful for Turkey. The period for application has expired. If on Monday a decision is not made and we establish negligence we shall go to the HSYK."