Turkey passes tough new security bill, raising fears of election crackdown

Source: 
Today's Zaman
Publication date: 
Mar 27 2015

The Turkish Parliament on Friday overwhelmingly passed into law a security bill to broaden police powers and allow the use of firearms against demonstrators, deepening fears of crackdowns on dissent ahead of parliamentary elections.

According to the private Doğan news agency, the bill was approved with 199 votes for and 32 against after a 16 and a half hour parliamentary session. The 132-article security package passed into law with 69 articles, as the AK Party decided not to discuss 63 articles so as not to delay the approval of the bill any further.

The bill has been much-criticized by the opposition for dealing a blow to democracy and fundamental freedoms such as the right to life, protest and privacy. Members of Turkey's restive Kurdish minority say the law could be used to target them.

The bill, which Parliament began to discuss at the beginning of last month, gives police officers the authority to detain anyone on the street who is considered to be a public disturbance or a threat to security or private property.

The police in Turkey cannot, under current legislation, detain a person without a prosecutor's permission. With the approval of this bill, the police will now be able to keep a person in custody for 24 hours when caught in the act of committing a crime. But in cases of mass demonstrations, the period police may hold a person for extends to 48 hours.

The bill has also been severely criticized by the opposition for giving the police more extensive authority to use their weapons. The bill allows police officers to shoot at protesters in order to prevent them from harming property, while according to the previous legislation, police officers were only authorized to gradually increase the use of force in order to prevent a crime.

It also expands police officers' authority in response to protesters who throw Molotov cocktails, authorizing them to fire their weapons at protesters who use them against the police. The penalties for those involved in acts of vandalism or the damaging of state or private property have also increased.

 

Today's Zaman with Reuters

 

Source: http://www.todayszaman.com/national_turkey-passes-tough-new-security-bil...