The End of Rule of Law

A growing consensus among jurists and analysts who have observed the rapid democratic backsliding in Turkey, a member of the Council of Europe (CoE), is that the rule of law has been effectively suspended under the renewed emergency rule and that the courts are practically controlled by the authoritarian regime of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who does not hesitate to abuse the criminal justice system to persecute his critics and opponents. Over 200 journalists have been jailed in Turkey, most in pre-trial detention, on trumpedup charges of terror, coup plotting or espionage, while some 50,000 people including judges, prosecutors, teachers, doctors and union workers have been arrested in the last eight months alone. The government has purged approximately 140,000 public employees without any effective administrative investigation or judicial probe.

Please read more below: Turkey’s Descent Into Arbitrariness 

Even though judges and prosecutors at Penal Courts of Peace have been specially selected from pro-government YBP, a dedicated communication have been established and these courts have been monitored by HSYK, attorney generals and commission chairs in order to prevent any error. There was no evidence for arrests but a list of arrests and questions to be used for interrogation. The process has been followed by commission chairs and attorney generals and HSYK was always in oversight. When there was problem in arrests, oppression was applied by directing the crowds to the courthouse, as it was the case in Duzce province.Particularly, the judges and prosecutors assigned for arrests after the coup attempt are in fear of being included in the subsequent lists and being discharged from profession if they don’t accomplish these arrest processes. A few of the hundreds of examples observed countrywide after the coup attempt is given below.

On October 2, 2016, a court in the southern province of Hatay refused to hear a caseagainst a man who prosecutors said was a member of Hizmet movement24 because hesimply had the ByLock application25 installed on his phone. The human rights lawyernoted that the judge made a very reasonable decision on this case, asking for moreevidence than the mere presence of an application on a mobile phone. Shortly after theruling the judge was publicly called a Hizmet member, and may face a legalinvestigation himself.

https://youtu.be/LQ8PZzTvTa4