Turkish Court Rules President Abdullah Gul Should Face Trial for Embezzlement

A Turkish court ruled that President Abdullah Gul should face trial for embezzlement charges related to funds associated with the Welfare Party of which he belonged in the 1990s.

The likelihood of Gul actually facing trial is slim as the case now goes before an appeals court and according to the president’s office the country’s constitution “the president cannot be put on trial unless it is on charges of treason.”

Gul was deputy chairman and a state minister of the Welfare Party before the party was banned in 1998 for violating constitutional requirements to respect secularism. As the party was disbanded its assets were then transferred to the state treasury at which time it was discovered several millions of dollars were missing.

Former Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan, who held office during that period, was removed from office and in 2002 he was sentenced to two years and four months in jail for embezzlement. Gul, who later founded the AK Party, was elected president in 2007 and in 2008 he pardoned Erbakan.

Despite Gul’s position as president and his office’s insistence that a president could not be put on trial Monday’s ruling stated otherwise as the court declared “the rule in the Turkish Republic's constitution and laws that everyone should stand trial.”

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