Parliamentary panel refuses to send former ministers to court over graft claims

A parliamentary inquiry commission has voted not to send four former ministers engulfed in the massive corruption and graft operation launched on Dec. 17, 2013, to the Supreme Council for trial.

The deputies voted nine to five to not send the four ex-ministers to the Supreme Council, with the nine votes all coming from ruling party deputies.

Following the Jan. 5 vote, Hakk? Köylü, the commission's chair from the AKP, said the commission would draft its detailed decision, with opposition deputies drafting their own dissenting opinion.

Both the detailed ruling and the dissenting opinion will be sent to the Parliament Speaker's Office by Jan. 9 at the latest, Köylü said. Upon receiving these documents, the parliamentary speaker will have to publish and send them to the General Assembly within 10 days, he added.

Despite the vote in the commission, a majority of whose members were from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), the quartet could still be sent to the top court following a final vote in Parliament's General Assembly after the commission submits its report. 

The panel's decision created uproar in the main opposition party. 

"What we have witnessed is an operation to cover up Turkey's biggest corruption probe," said Levent Gök, deputy parliamentary group leader of the Republican People's Party (CHP). "This decision does not clear the former ministers," he added. 

"The issue will now come to Parliament, where we will see if the AKP lawmakers will vote on orders from the party executives or with their conscience."

The parliamentary inquiry commission was set to vote late Dec. 22, 2014, on whether to send the four former ministers involved in Turkey's Dec. 17 and 25, 2013, corruption...