Country of origin information report Turkey March 2007

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11 Arrest and detention – Legal Rights
11.01 The European Commission Turkey 2005 Progress Report recorded that a revised Regulation on Apprehension, Detention and Statement Taking, a Regulation on Judicial and Preventive Search and a Regulation on the Judicial Police, entered into force on 1 June 2005. [71d] (p16)
11.02 The EC 2006 report also noted that:
“One circular of particular importance concerns the implementation of legislation on arrest, detention and statement taking and the prevention of human rights violations during these practices. This circular underlines the duty of prosecutors to monitor the situation of detainees through regular visits to places of detention. It also requires prosecutors to report periodically to the Ministry of Justice on implementation by law enforcement authorities.” [71a](p8)
11.03 The EC 2006 further noted that:
“Legislation regarding judicial cooperation in criminal matters is not in line with EU standards, in particular extradition of both Turkish and foreign citizens, the application of the ne bis in idem principle, environmental crime, provisions on victims' rights in the framework of criminal proceedings and the implementation of the European Arrest Warrant. Turkey is a member of the European Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters (1959) and its Protocol (1978). However, it has not signed the second additional protocol to the Convention (2001). Ratification of the Additional Protocol would bring Turkey closer to alignment with the acquis regarding provisions on joint investigation teams. Turkey is preparing for its participation in Eurojust.” [71a] (p66)
11.04 The EC 2005 report recorded that “As regards legal guarantees including access to justice, so far as the prohibition of arbitrary arrest is concerned, Article 90 of the Criminal Procedure Code provides that persons who are arrested by the police must be informed of the reason for their arrest.” [71d] (p105)
11.05 It was however noted in the EC 2006 report that “With respect to some provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedures and of the Law on execution of sentences, the notification of a relative of the detained person and the right to access a lawyer are not uniformly applied. Furthermore, while the Code introduced provisions against the use of statements obtained under torture, concerns remain on statements obtained prior to the enactment of the Code…” [71a](p13)
11.06 The 2005 USSD report noted:
“Detainees are entitled to immediate access to an attorney and to meet and confer with an attorney at any time, but in practice authorities did not always respect these provisions and most detainees did not exercise these rights, either because they were unaware of them or feared antagonising the authorities. If indigent, detainees were provided an attorney at government expense.” [5b] (section 1d)