AKP officials lodged the 98 page defence document with the office of the Chief Prosecutor of the Supreme Court of Appeals late Wednesday. The main line of offence adopted by the AKP is that the case brought against it by Chief Prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya was of a political nature and not a judicial one.
As such, the case should not be heard by the Constitutional Court.
As a political case, the trial should not proceed as European laws and Venice guidelines a party can only be closed if it supported violence.
The suit lodged against the AKP alleges the government is seeking to subvert the secular regime in Turkey and undermine the constitution.
Seventy senior member of the AKP, including Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, have been named in the suit. Also named was President Abdullah Gul, a former AKP Prime Minister and Foreign Minister.
If the Constitutional Court finds in favour of the prosecution’s suit, the AKP will be closed and the named officials banned from all political activity for a period of five years.
