Free Republic

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – Turkish prosecutors demand aggravated life imprisonment for a local US Consulate employee, Metin Topuz, who they charge with espionage for a foreign nation, membership in a terrorist organization, and participation in conspiracies to overthrow the government of Turkey.Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Parliament Speaker Binali Yildirim, former ministers Ali Babacan, Muammer Guler, and Zafer Caglayan – the last two themselves targets of a high-level corruption investigation in 2013 – and former Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag are among 30 officials who claimed victimhood and are plaintiffs in an indictment released this weekend against Topuz.The Turkish national who...

Turkish politicians threw punches and water bottles during a debate on Saturday about government control over the appointment of judges and prosecutors, as a feud over the ruling party's handling of a corruption scandal intensified... Parliament's justice commission was gathering to discuss a draft bill from Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's AK Party to give it more say over the judiciary when the scuffles broke out. The fight erupted when a representative of a judicial association arrived with a petition arguing the bill was anti-constitutional but he was not allowed to speak, witnesses said. "If I am being kicked at here...