ANKARA
Turkish judges and prosecutors have elected 10 primary and six substitute members of the High Council of Judges and Prosecutors, Turkey’s top judicial body announced on Sunday.
Over 12,000 judges and prosecutors elected 16 primary and substitute members of the High Council's 22-member general assembly.
The president will assign four other members and the remaining two seats will be occupied by the Justice Minister, who chairs the body, and the undersecretary of the justice ministry, who will be assigned as the final member.
“Judges and prosecutors said “no” to an ideological understanding of the judiciary,” the Turkish Minister of Justice, Bekir Bozdag, said following the announcement of the results. "They protected our democracy, rule of law and pluralism," the minister added.
Bozdag also stated that Turkish judges and prosecutors had prevented the hegemony that a certain group wanted to build over the judiciary, referring to the followers of U.S.-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gulen, who has been accused of controlling Turkey’s top judicial body.
www.aa.com.tr/en
