TURKEY’S PARLIAMENT HAS passed a bill tightening government control over the judiciary— despite lawmakers violently scuffling.

Fighting erupted overnight between ruling party and opposition lawmakers as the bill was debated in a marathon 20-hour sitting.

Ali Ihsan Kokturk, lawmaker from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), got a bloodied nose in the brawl, while ruling party lawmaker Bayram Ozcelik’s finger was broken.

The opposition says the reform is a “government manoeuvre” to limit fallout from a graft probe that has ensnared top allies of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

“The law is an apparent indicator of the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) attempt to cover the corruption investigation by redesigning the judiciary,” CHP lawmaker Aykan Aydemir told AFP.

Parliament resumed debate of the bill Friday despite an uproar from opposition parties and the international community who warned it threatened the independence of the judiciary in the European Union hopeful country.