Turkey’s highest court was told today that the country’s governing party should be disbanded for alleged Islamist activities. The President and Prime Minister are accused of breaching strict rules ensuring that political parties remain secular.

The case being heard today is the latest in a series of battles between the Justice and Development Party (AK), which has Islamic roots, and secularists who dominate the courts, the Army and the bureaucracy.

Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya, chief prosecutor of the Court of Appeal, arrived at the court through a back door this morning and made a 90-minute presentation to the panel of 11 judges before going into closed session. “The secular Republic is facing an unprecedented danger because the counterrevolutionary forces are no longer in the margins, but in government,” Mr Yalcinkaya said.

The AK legal team will offer its defence of the party on Thursday. After the hearings, a court-appointed rapporteur will submit a non-binding opinion. The court will then set a date to debate the case and come to a verdict, also in camera.

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Many political analysts expect the party to be outlawed and some members, including Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Prime Minister, to be banned from belonging to a party for five years. AK representatives suggest that a ruling is unlikely before next month.

The indictment against AK rests heavily on government proposals to allow women to wear the Muslim headscarf at university. In a separate ruling the Government’s proposals were scrapped by the courts, leaving AK party members fearing the worst from the latest hearing.

Mr Yalcinkaya began proceedings in March, arguing that AK had become a “focal point” of anti-secular activity aimed at installing an Islamist state. He asked the court to bar 71 AK officials, including the Prime Minister and Abdullah Gul, the Turkish President, from party politics for five years.

If the AK party were closed and Mr Erdogan removed from power, analysts expect that an early parliamentary election would follow.

Most of the party’s elected representatives would then regroup under a different name. If the court bans Mr Erdogan from party politics, he could return to Parliament by running as an independent.

AK, an offshoot of a now-banned Islamist movement, rejects the charges as baseless and politically motivated.

The indictment has deepened political and economic uncertainty in the country and threatens to derail Turkish attempts to join the European Union. The EU has criticised the case and a move against a democratically elected party could hurt Turkey’s accession process.

Turkish courts have banned more than 20 political parties for alleged Islamist or Kurdish separatist activities and a predecessor to the AK party was banned in 2001. A governing party has never before faced dissolution.

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