30.08.2001 - Source: Council of the European Union

United Kingdom delegation to CIREA: One format of arrest warrants; two ways to inform the addressee about the warrant ("Note from the United Kingdom delegation to CIREA: Report on the fact-finding mission to Turkey Rf: 11498/01") [#8473],  [ID 13318]

"4.2.1 There is one format of arrest warrant, but there are two ways to inform the addressee about the warrant. (i) The arrest warrant is read in person to the addressee/arrestee. (ii) The warrant may be issued in absentia, authorising the police or Jandarma to locate and apprehend the person involved for questioning and appearance before the prosecutor. In both cases the prosecutor requests the warrant, and the authorisation to arrest is given by the court or by the judge. If the police or Jandarma arrest someone when in hot pursuit, the warrant must be approved retrospectively within 48 hours.

4.2.2 A number of Turkish asylum seekers in the United Kingdom produce documents purporting to be properly issued arrest warrants and other legal documents. A senior official at the Ministry of Justice gave the IND mission specimens of these documents against which those produced in future by asylum applicants can be compared. He also provided information about how such warrants can be identified and authenticated by means of the numbering and other features on the Report on UK Immigration & Nationality Directorate fact finding mission to Turkey warrants. In law any individual has a right to obtain a copy of court documents - including arrest warrants - made against them. A lawyer or family member may act for that person in the person's absence, and may obtain such a copy without preconditions."

Document(s): Open document

30.08.2001 - Source: Council of the European Union

United Kingdom delegation to CIREA: Criminal records ("Note from the United Kingdom delegation to CIREA: Report on the fact-finding mission to Turkey Rf: 11498/01") [#8473],  [ID 13319]

"4.5.1 A senior official at the Ministry of Justice explained to us that Turkey has legal provisions on the rehabilitation of offenders. The provision is part of Law No. 3682 of 1990. It erases from the record previous criminal convictions after a given period of time depending on the gravity of the offence.

4.5.2 Convictions for serious crimes such as embezzlement, peculation, extortion, bribery, theft, swindling, forgery, and abuse of religious beliefs, which have resulted in sentences of five years' imprisonment or less, are erased from the Registry five years after completion of the sentence. The period is reduced to two years if the offender was under 15 years of age, and to three years if the offender was 15 to 18 years old. For those crimes that resulted in more than five years' imprisonment, but fall outside the category of serious crimes, the conviction will, if the offender was under 15 years of age, be erased five years after completion of the sentence. In cases where the offender was 15 to 18 years old, the conviction will be erased after ten years. The offences covered by this provision do not include terrorist or other security offences.

4.5.3 We were advised by one NGO that, if a person comes under suspicion in one part of Turkey, the police or Jandarma passes the information to the other part to which the individual subsequently moves.

4.5.4 As regards the length of time such intelligence material is held, a well-known human rights activist showed us a copy of an indictment with which he had been served and in which he had been charged (amongst other things) with an alleged offence under Article 312 of the Criminal Code [incitement to racial, ethnic or religious enmity] alleged to have been committed ten years ago. This, he felt, clearly demonstrated the extent to which intelligence material is both recorded, retained and used against someone even after an extended period of time. He also mentioned another example of a charge being brought against a particular individual some 22 years after the alleged event."

Document(s): Open document