Murderers, muggers and mafiosi: New amnesty law unleashes mayhem on Turkish streets

Asmaa al-Batakoushi

Not long after Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and its ally the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) passed the new amnesty law to limit the spread of the Covid-19 corona virus, the country has witnessed murders by some of those released under the law, causing panic in Turkish circles.

The AKP did not heed the warnings of the opposition parties and instead released killers, thieves, drug dealers and mafiosi, while keeping political prisoners detained.

According to the Turkish opposition newspaper Zaman, Turkish society has already witnessed the first repercussions of the law, as 33-year-old Muslim Arslan, who had been imprisoned for slaughtering his wife, was released under the new amnesty law, and the first thing he did after his release was beat his 9-year-old daughter to death.

Commenting on the incident, opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) MP Erdogan Toprak said, “Does whoever pardoned that father have a clear conscience now? Let everyone who applauded and voted for this law look at the image of the victimized girl Gilan.”

In another incident that occurred after implementing the amnesty law, a young man killed his friend while they were on a picnic in the western city of Izmir on the Sea of ​​Marmara just one day after he was released from prison. The Turkish authorities did not provide sufficient details about the young man, revealing only his first name, Mehmet, accompanied by the first letter of his family name, “J”. The victim, 44-year-old Umit Areej, was killed with a stone in Izmir’s Torbali district.

Meanwhile, the Turkish news agency Mezopotamya reported that a 26-year-old prisoner named Savaş C. was released on April 20 and then assaulted a retired policeman in the Selçuklu district of Konya, stole 8,000 lira, and fled.

The Turkish authorities also released mafioso Alaattin Çakıcı, 67, who had been imprisoned for years after being deported from a European country due to his mafia activities abroad.

Erdogan’s AKP and its ally MHP, led by Dolat Bahceli, had been seeking to pass these amendments in parliament for more than two years but had failed until now. Had it not been for the corona virus pandemic, this law would not have passed so quickly and easily. Erdogan and his allies took advantage of the spread of the virus in the country and succeeded in passing the new law in parliament despite the opposition of the CHP, the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) and the İYİ Party.

It is noteworthy that the former Justice Minister Hikmet Sami Türk had warned about the negative aspects of the release of imprisoned criminals under the amnesty law, explaining that the amnesty that took place in 1999 caused immense outrage after those who released from prison were involved in violent crimes.