STRASBOURG, July 29 (AFP) -The European Court of Human Rights will rule Tuesday on whether a decision by Turkey to dissolve the pro-Islamist Refah party in 1998 was legitimate.
Most recently the constitutional court in Turkey banned anoth Islamic affiliated party which now under its former leader, Recai Kutan, has come back under a new name: (Saaddet). _[Photo caption below].
The court has already condemned Turkey for human rights abuses on three previous occasions for having banned Marxist or pro-Kurd political groups.
The latest case, which opened in January, was brought by Refah's leader, 74-year-old former prime minister Necmettin Erbakan together with the party's former vice-chairmen Sevket Kazan and Ahmet Tekdal.
The party was in power at the time of its dissolution and Erbakan along with his two deputy leaders were stripped of their parliamentary seats.
The trio challenged the legitimacy of a decision by Turkey's constitutional court to dissolve Refah on January 16, 1998, on the grounds that it had become "a centre of activities against the principle of secularism" thereby undermining democracy.
They accused Turkey of having violated the right to freedom of religion, expression and association and the right to free elections -- as well as property rights because the party's assets were seized and handed over to the treasury.
Also the three said the Turkish court had not followed its own rules for the dissolution of political parties, but had decided under pressure from the country's military.
A Turkish government lawyer maintained that the Refah party threatened the secular values of Turkey, a Muslim country, and accused the party of having hidden "anti-democratic and fundamentalist aims".
The state has a right to protect itself against Islam's tendency "to settle not only religious and moral questions, but legal questions and to a certain extent the political order of the state," he said.
"It (the Refah party) would have been tolerated if it had remained on the fringes," the lawyer said.
But when the plaintiffs' lawyer Laurent Hincker was questioned by the judges on Refah's political aims, he said it did not in any way resemble the radical Islamic movement Hezbollah.
Hincker maintained that Turkish democracy was merely a front, and that its constitutional court had dug up old speeches by Erbakan in a bid to justify the ban of his party.
Erbakan, along with Kazan and Tekdal are seeking damages and interest of 3,322 dollars (3,800 euros) for lost pay after being ousted from parliament. They are also claiming 58,000 dollars worth of lost assets.
Refah came to power under Erbakan in June 1996 at the head of a coalition formed after parliamentary elections the previous year.
Aside from being stripped of their parliamentary seats, Erbakan and his two deputy leaders were barred from establishing, joining or leading any new political party for five years.
PHOTO CAPTION:
Recai Kutan, former chief of the Islamist Virtue party, banned by the constitutional court last month, greets his supporters after declaring the foundation of their new party called "Saadet," which means happiness or felicity, during a news conference in Ankara July 20, 2001. The new Islamist party was proclaimed in Turkey on Friday from the ruins of a party banned last month as subversive. REUTERS/str
- Jul 20 7:29 AM ET