ANKARA, 12 February, 2021 (TON): On Thursday, the Deputy of the Republican People’s Party, Enis Berberoglu officially regained his position as an MP after an Istanbul court withholds criminal complaints against him.

He was accused of unveiling confidential state documents related to Syria.

The Istanbul 14th High Criminal Court dropped charges against Berberoglu on Monday following a ruling by the country’s Constitutional Court which unanimously decided on 21 January that Berberoglu’s rights to stand for elections and engage in political activities had been violated by lower courts because legal proceedings against him should have been suspended due to his re-election as a member of parliament during the country’s June 2018 elections.

He was sentenced by a lower court to five years and 10 months in jail in 2017 for his role in leaking confidential documents about National Intelligence Organization trucks allegedly carrying weapons bound for Syria.

Berberoglu was found guilty of espionage and providing footage of the trucks to a dissident journalist.

Although he was re-elected to parliament in June 2018, he was not released from jail until September that year, when the Court of Cassation postponed his sentence due to his reelection.

However, it was consistently repeated by the rights activists that his reelection in 2018 meant his parliamentary immunity still applied a claim that has now been upheld by Turkey’s highest court.