14 Hizb-ut Tahrir members who were taken into custody on Tuesday, 22nd September 2020, by the Police Department of Antalya, were taken to court on Tuesday, September 29th, after an unfair custody of 8 days. An arrest warrant for 11 of our brothers was issued, 2 of our brothers were released on bail and 1 of our brothers was released upon the request of the prosecutor.
Comment:
The court did not show any reason for the arrest of our brothers. With the following statements, it suggested to have made an arbitrary arrest: “THEIR ARREST for reasons that show the existence of a strong criminal suspicion regarding the fact that they committed the crimes they have been charged with…” The court has immediately punished our brothers by a political decision, without exposing the crimes they have been charged with and without determining and confirming whether an activity committed by Hizb ut Tahrir members is a crime according to law.
This justification of the 2nd Magistrates’ Court of Antalya is also completely at odds with the justification of the violation of right decision on Hizb ut Tahrir by the Supreme Court General Assembly dated 19.07.2018, with the approval of 14 members, including the chief judge, against 2 votes. Because the Supreme Court says in its decision that district courts (courts of first instance) and the higher judiciary (the Supreme Court) did not present their justifications sufficiently while trialing and imposing punishments, stating exactly that “The degree courts should present their justifications relevantly and sufficiently in this regard. In this context, the courts of first instance and the Supreme Court should at least consider once whether the Hizb ut Tahrir organization is a terrorist organization or not.”
Well, did the district courts make such an evaluation? No! Because they can’t, because Hizb ut Tahrir is a party that carries out intellectual and political work and cannot be considered within the context of terrorist organizations. Since its establishment in 1953, it has never resorted to violence and terrorism and never will. This case of Hizb ut Tahrir is already being mentioned in the Supreme Court’s decision with exactly the following statements. “According to the police reports, it is being understood that the organization whose name is mentioned, never was involved in armed attacks from 1967 when the first operation (in Turkey) was carried out against the organization, until 2016 when the last report, submitted to the Supreme Court, was prepared.”
Then what is the reason of this pressure, this hostility and this oppression against Hizb ut Tahrir and its members? It is the intolerance and despair of the government, judiciary and seculars who are the enemies of Islam, against the Khilafah Project of Hizb ut Tahrir. This shows that they are not able to defend their broken-down secular democratic system against the Khilafah (Caliphate) project. This shows that they violate the democratic “values” they bless. Because they almost violate the principle of separation of powers, they talk about law and justice if it works for them, and if not, they establish a tutelage on law and justice. Such that they could wage war against the practices they introduced before, in order to protect their positions. The statements of MHP Chair Devlet Bahceli regarding the need for change of the Supreme Court’s structure, and the fact that President Erdogan supports it, confirm what I said.
However, they do not know this: These arrests and pressures neither scare us and deter us from our path, nor could prevent the establishment of Khilafah and the domination of Islam. This oppression could only increase their torment and the reward of our oppressed brothers. Certainly, Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta’ala is the protector of the true believers.
Mahmut KAR
Head of the Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir in Wilayah Turkey