ANKARA - Noting that the adoption of the bill, which includes amendments to the Execution Law in the Parliamentary Plan and Budget Committee, is against the Constitution and international conventions, HDP said: "We do not accept discrimination against political prisoners during execution."

 

Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) Human Rights and Law Commission, which AKP brought to the Parliament's agenda on July 8; After the last minute amendments on the Execution Law were added to the bag bill, which includes changes in many issues from rent increase, increase in civil servants and pensions, tax exemption to containers in earthquake zones, to corporate tax, a written statement has been published regarding its adoption in the Parliamentary Plan Budget Committee.

 

THE PROPOSAL IS UNCONSTITUTIONAL

 

In the statement titled "We do not accept discrimination against political prisoners in execution", which is stated to be far from meeting the needs of the society, this bag bill that will be discussed and voted on at the General Assembly: "The proposal is unlawful in terms of both form and substance. Since the amendment was made to reduce the capacity density in prisons and resulted in the release of many convicts, it is in the nature of a special amnesty; therefore, both this article in particular and the bag law it contains must be voted on in accordance with Article 92 of the Parliament's Bylaws and adopted by a three-fifths majority; however, the government has not followed this method in any bag of laws, including execution regulations. For this reason, it is against the Constitution that this regulation, which is a special amnesty, is brought to the Parliament with this method."

 

In terms of substance, like the previous execution regulations, political prisoners were excluded from the scope. While judicial convicts can be released early with these arrangements, political prisoners will not benefit from this arrangement. For this reason, the content of the proposal is unconstitutional according to the prohibition of discrimination and the principle of equality. Similar arrangements were made in 2020, citing the latest Covid-19 pandemic, and then the execution time for judicial convicts was reduced from two-thirds to half in terms of conditional release, and the rate of 3/4 was preserved without any change in terms of political prisoners. Again, while the probation period was 3 years in judicial crimes, it was 1 year in political cases."