ANKARA, (AFP) - Turkey's top court Wednesday undermined a last-ditch effort by the pro-Islamic Virtue Party to escape a possible ban when it rejected a plea to put the imminent verdict on hold.
Virtue, accused of anti-secular activities, made the request earlier Wednesday, arguing that parliament was preparing constitutional amendments that would make banning parties more difficult.
Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit supported the move because he fears that outlawing Virtue would spark political instability at a time when his embattled government is fighting a severe economic crisis.
The court, however, found no legal ground for the request.
"The court decided unanimously that the reasons cited ... were not of a nature to require the postponement of the case hearings," the deputy head of the constitutional court, Hasim Kilic, told reporters.
"The court will continue to review the case," he added.
The critical verdict is expected by the weekend.
The outcome is significant not only for Virtue but also for the government since it could spark by-elections and disrupt crucial IMF-backed reforms to save the economy from the bottleneck.
Ecevit said earlier he favored a suspension of the verdict.
"Turkey cannot afford elections now because we are implementing a programme to put the economy on track, which needs to be carried out with great sensitivity. If there were elections now it (the programme) would be torn to pieces," Ecevit said.
Virtue's maneuver followed an agreement between all five parties in parliament last week on a series of amendements to Turkey's constitution, a legacy of the 1980 military junta.
The 37-item draft, which can still be changed before reaching the general assembly for a final vote, includes a clause under which would make it more difficult to ban parties.
The draft includes stringent criteria to prove the parties had committed constitutional breaches.
Virtue argued that the court should also wait for the outcome of a case at the European Court of Human Rights, which they said is to rule soon on whether Turkey had acted legitimately when it outlawed Virtue's predecessor, the Welfare Party, in 1998.
The ban on Welfare was the climax of a harsh military-led anti-Islamist campaign that also forced Turkey's first Islamist Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan, the Welfare leader, to resign.
Virtue now risks the same fate.
The party is accused of being a "focal point" for anti-secular activities and an illegal continuation of Welfare.
Former chief prosecutor Vural Savas, who opened the case in May 1999, demanded also a five-year political ban on Virtue's leadership and the removal from office of all 102 Virtue parliamentary deputies.
Savas described Virtue as a "blood-sucking vampire" for allegedly exploiting people's religious beliefs.
The party is also charged with inciting protests against a headscarf ban in universities and orchestrating a failed bid by one of its legislators in 1999 to take an oath in parliament wearing a headscarf, a move seen as a symbolic challenge of Turkey's strictly secular order.
If the court removes at least 20 Virtue deputies, Turkey will hold by-elections for the vacant seats in the 550-member house and the government could come under pressure to conduct a general election.
But Turkey can avoid polls if the constitutional court heeds the demand of the prosecutor who succeeded Savas.
In a fresh indictement in February, Sabih Kanadoglu maintained the call to outlaw Virtue, but demanded the removal of only two parliamentarians from office.