Turkish court issues gag order on inquiry into corruption

Turkey’s media organizations have been unprecedentedly banned from reporting about a parliamentary inquiry into corruption allegations concerning four former ministers of Cabinet.

A request for the ban was filed by the Parliament Speaker’s Office to the Ankara Chief Prosecutor’s Office on Nov. 21, asking for a ban that will last until Dec. 27.

The ban announced late on Nov. 25 comes just a day before former Environment and Urban Planning Erdoğan Bayraktar was expected to present his defense to the investigation commission. Former EU Minister Egemen Bağış is, meanwhile, expected to present his defense on Nov. 27.

In addition to the internal regulations of Parliament, the Parliament Speaker’s Office cited related articles of the Constitution and the Code on Criminal Procedure (CMK) in its correspondence with the Chief Prosecutor’s Office, and argued that certain media reports had “violated confidentiality of the investigation and harmed the principle of presumption of innocence,” while appealing for the media ban for the sake of the “healthy conduct of the investigation,” the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.

In its affirmative response to the appeal, the prosecutor mentioned the need for “preventing harm to personal rights and protecting the reputation and other rights of former ministers” who are subject to investigation.

Parliament had decided to establish an investigation commission to probe former ministers Bayraktar, Bağış, Zafer Çağlayan and Muammer Güler on May 5, after deliberations between political parties.

The four ministers resigned from Cabinet after a huge graft operation highlighted their relations with Iranian-origin businessman Reza Zarrab, who allegedly paid them...