Recent Amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure

Overview of the Amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure

For this reason, some of the amendments made are addressed below:

Amendments discussed in the article

Release of an Apprehended Person upon an Undertaking

Article 94 of the CCP regulates the bringing of an apprehended person before the court. With the amendment, the following paragraph has been added to the article.

“(3) The public prosecutor may order the release of a person who is apprehended outside working hours on an arrest warrant issued for the purpose of taking his statement and who undertakes to appear before the judicial authority on a specified date. This provision may be applied only once for each arrest warrant. A person who fails to fulfil his undertaking shall be subject to an administrative fine of one thousand Turkish lira imposed by the public prosecutor of the place where the arrest warrant was issued.”

CCP, Art. 94 (added paragraph)

As of 14 July 2021, persons apprehended outside working hours may be released by decision of the public prosecutor if they undertake to appear before the judicial authority on a specified date. If the apprehended person fails to appear before the judicial authority on the specified date as undertaken, an administrative fine will be imposed on him.

Deduction of Time Spent under House Arrest from the Sentence

The following sentence has been added to paragraph 6 of Article 109, which regulates judicial control decisions.

“However, every two days spent under the obligation not to leave one’s residence specified in subparagraph (j) shall be taken into account as one day in the deduction from the sentence.”

CCP, Art. 109/6 (added sentence)

Thus, whereas before the amendment the time spent under house arrest could not be deducted if the person received a sentence, with this amendment the time spent under house arrest may be deducted at the rate of one day for every two days if the person receives a sentence.

Review of Judicial Control Every Four Months

The obligations under judicial control decisions regulated in Article 110 of the CCP will now be reviewed at 4-month intervals, with a decision being made as to whether they should continue. Accordingly, just as with detention, the following paragraph has been added to the article concerning whether the continuation of the obligations under other judicial control measures is necessary:

“(4) A decision on whether the continuation of the judicial control obligation of the suspect or accused is necessary shall be made at intervals of no more than four months, taking into account the provisions of Article 109, by the criminal judgeship of peace upon the request of the public prosecutor during the investigation stage, and by the court of its own motion during the prosecution stage.”

CCP, Art. 110 (added paragraph)

This provision will be applied as of 01.01.2022.

Upper Limit on the Duration of Judicial Control

The following article has been added after Article 110 of the CCP.

“Period to be spent under judicial control

ARTICLE 110/A – (1) In matters not falling within the jurisdiction of the assize court, the period of judicial control shall be a maximum of two years. However, in compulsory circumstances, this period may be extended by a further year, with reasons given.

(2) In matters falling within the jurisdiction of the assize court, the period of judicial control shall be a maximum of three years. In compulsory circumstances, this period may be extended with reasons given; the extension may not exceed three years in total, or four years for offences defined in Chapters Four, Five, Six and Seven of Part Four of Book Two of the Turkish Criminal Code and offences falling within the scope of the Anti-Terror Law.

(3) The judicial control periods provided for in this article shall be applied at half the rate in respect of children.”

CMK, m. 110/A

This provision will enter into force on 01.01.2022.

Objection to Detention and Judicial Control Decisions

Subparagraph (b) of paragraph 3 of Article 268 of the CCP, entitled “procedure for objection and reviewing authorities”, has been amended as follows:

“b) The review of objections to decisions of the criminal judgeship of peace on detention and judicial control shall fall to the judge of the criminal court of first instance within whose judicial district it is located. Where the authorities competent to review the objection are different, the criminal judgeship of peace whose decision is objected to shall take the necessary measures to ensure that objections are reviewed without delay. Where the business of the criminal judgeship of peace is conducted by a judge of the criminal court of first instance, the power to review the objection shall lie with the presiding judge of the assize court.”

CMK, m. 268/3-b

With this amendment, objections to decisions of the criminal judgeship of peace on detention and judicial control will now be made to the criminal courts of first instance. Thus, owing to complaints that objections to protective measures produced no results, the horizontal objection procedure has been abandoned and a vertical objection procedure has been introduced.

The relevant provision will be applied as of 01.01.2022.

For details, see: https://www.resmigazete.gov.tr/eskiler/2021/07/20210714-8.htm