Prosecutor seeks to disband Turkey's governing party

Istanbul: Turkey's chief prosecutor is seeking to disband the country's Islamic-rooted governing party and to bar Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan from holding public office, a court official said.

Erdogan's party "has tried to chip away at the principle of secularism," by claiming that the constitutional description of secularism is "obscure," Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya reportedly claimed in an indictment.

Yalcinkaya petitioned the Constitutional Court, Turkey's highest court, on Friday for the closure of the ruling Justice and Development Party, which dominates the 550-seat Parliament with 340 lawmakers. He said the party was "the focal point of anti-secular activities."

The prosecutor demanded a total of 70 party members including Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul be barred from political life for five years.

Erdogan, like many others in his party, was involved in Turkey's political Islamic movement and was jailed in the past for publicly reciting a poem a court deemed to be inciting religious hatred.

The prosecutor's indictment said political Islam used democracy as a means to impose Islamic law, according to the court official. It did not openly associate the ruling party with the political Islamic movement, however, the court official said.