MHP head: Vote against trial for former ministers was an 'embarrassing decision'

The nay vote by a parliamentary committee investigating corruption allegations against four former Cabinet ministers on graft charges is ?one of the most embarrassing decisions? made in Turkish political history, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli has said, adding that Turkey can "no longer live" with the ruling party?s damaging approach to law and morality.

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) is a ?threat to democracy, national unity, a thousand-year-old fraternity, individual rights and freedoms and the future,? Bahçeli said on Jan. 6, also describing the ruling party as a "source of sin.?

?Houses of journalists, who wrote Twitter messages about the Dec. 17-25 operation, are being cruelly raided,? Bahçeli told a parliamentary group meeting of this party, in an apparent reference to the detention of journalist and TV anchor Sedef Kaba?.

Kaba? was released on probation shortly after being detained for her tweet on Turkey?s now-closed graft probe. Kaba? was detained on Dec. 30 following her tweet, in which she called on citizens to not forget the name of the judge who dropped the Dec. 17, 2013 corruption probe involving high-profile figures and former Cabinet members.

MHP head Bahçeli slammed the commission's decision not to pursue the case. ?Bribed former ministers are secure and known children are safe. Yesterday, one of the most embarrassing decisions in Turkish political history was made when four former ministers were not sent to the Supreme Council by the parliamentary investigation commission following a three-and-a-half-hour long meeting,? he said.

?Ministers, about whom there are plenty of claims, have been protected and the national conscience has been seduced,? he added.