Informing the parliamentary counsel, Minister of Justice Sadullah Ergin stated that 19 thousand 251 files at Supreme Court of Appeal dropped due to prescription in 2010, adding; “The system is at the point of congestion. The number of prescribe files will reach to 55 thousand in 2014”. Ergin recorded that the applications concerning the judgment of 12 September putschers are collected in 272 files.

The admission that the pending files at Turkish courts, Supreme Court of Appeal in particular, block the judicial system came from Minister of Justice Sadullah Ergin this time.

55 THOUSAND FILES TILL 2014

Minister of Justice recorded that the number of files at Supreme Court of Appeal dropped due to prescription was 9 thousand 111 in 2007, 12 thousand 354 in 2008 and 14 thousand 809 in 2009, adding; “About 55 thousand files are in danger of dropping due to prescription in 2014”. Kemal Türkler’s murder case was also among the files dropped due to prescription in 2010.

Pointing out to the increase in the number of Supreme Court of Appeal’s offices, Ergin said the followings; “We facing with the dropping risk of a number of files. There is an annual increase of 30 percent in this particular. Even if there aren’t any new files to come from the Supreme Court, some offices are full with files that will not be touched in a five year time. This situation brought the justice system to the degree of blocking”.

680 INDICTMENTS AGAINST PUTSCHERS

Ergin also informed about the cases opened against the responsible generals of 12 September Coup. The Minister remarked that Ankara Prosecution has been working on the cases for some time and will disclose its decision before long, adding that; “The number of complainants to Public Prosecutor of Ankara up to now is nearly 680. And these complaints were collected in 272 files”.

Translation: Berna Ozgencil