The presumption of innocence in Turkish criminal law is not a decorative principle or a slogan used only in academic writing. It is one of the structural rules that shape the entire criminal process in Türkiye, from the opening of the investigation to the wording of public statements, the treatment of defendants in court, the […]
Criminal court hearings in Turkey are the stage where a criminal accusation stops being only a prosecutor’s file and becomes a judicial process conducted before a court. For defendants, this is the part of the case where the indictment is formally brought into court, the evidence is presented and debated, witnesses and experts may be […]
Expert reports in criminal cases can be decisive in Turkey because many criminal files turn on questions a judge cannot answer with ordinary legal knowledge alone. Technical causation, medical findings, digital traces, accounting flows, signature analysis, valuation issues, and scientific measurements often enter the case through an expert report rather than through a witness or […]
Witness testimony in Turkish criminal trials remains one of the most important forms of proof in the Turkish criminal justice system. Even in cases built around digital data, expert reports, forensic traces, or documentary records, witness evidence often determines how the court understands chronology, intent, participation, credibility, and context. Turkish criminal procedure therefore does not […]
Defense rights during prosecutor statements in Türkiye are a critical part of Turkish criminal procedure because the public prosecutor is not just another questioning authority. In the Turkish system, the prosecutor is the legal actor who directs the investigation, decides whether evidence is sufficient to move toward indictment, requests coercive measures when necessary, and is […]
Objections to detention orders in Turkey are one of the most important tools in Turkish criminal defense practice because pre-trial detention is the harshest protective measure that can be imposed before a final conviction. Under Turkish law, detention is not meant to function as advance punishment, a routine prosecutorial advantage, or a shortcut around careful […]
An indictment under Turkish criminal law is not supposed to be a simple accusation memo or a one-sided summary of police suspicion. It is a formal charging document prepared by the public prosecutor only after the investigation has reached a legally sufficient threshold. In the Turkish system, the indictment is the bridge between the investigation […]
The prosecution phase in Turkish criminal cases is the stage that begins after the court accepts the indictment and continues through hearing preparation, trial, evidentiary debate, judgment, and the opening of appellate review. In Turkish criminal procedure, this phase is not just a continuation of the investigation. It is a separate procedural stage with its […]
The investigation phase in Turkish criminal procedure is the first formal stage of the criminal process and one of the most decisive. Under the Code of Criminal Procedure, the “investigation” begins when the competent authorities learn of a suspicion of crime and continues until the indictment is accepted; once the indictment is accepted, the prosecution […]
A criminal investigation in Turkey does not begin only when someone is arrested or when a prosecutor files an indictment. Under Turkish criminal procedure, the investigation phase starts much earlier, at the moment the public prosecutor learns of a fact pattern that creates the impression a crime may have been committed. That early threshold matters […]