The Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) on Tuesday appointed Ferhat Sarıkaya as an Ankara public prosecutor after it reversed an earlier ruling to disbar the prosecutor in mid-April.

The HSYK General Assembly ruled on Tuesday that Sarıkaya is still qualified to perform his former duties. Sarıkaya has long been known as the Şemdinli prosecutor. The Şemdinli incident was an infamous episode in November 2005 in which a bookstore in Hakkari's Şemdinli district was bombed. An investigation into the bombing revealed that the act was perpetrated by two noncommissioned gendarmerie officers and a outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) member-turned-informant.

After Sarıkaya, who was working on the case, deepened the probe and launched a number of investigations into top army commanders and indicted former Chief of General Staff Gen. Yaşar Büyükanıt, he was disbarred by the HSYK and was unable to practice law.

Shortly after a referendum on a constitutional amendment package in September of last year, 52 disbarred judges and prosecutors applied to the HSYK to be reinstated. The amendment package opened HSYK decisions to judicial review and enabled judges and prosecutors disbarred by the HSYK since 1981 to apply for a return to their professions.

After his appointment to the Ankara Public Prosecutor's Office, Sarıkaya spoke to reporters and said he was pleased by the new HSYK decision. "I never lost my hope [to return to my profession]," he said.

Cihan news agency