İYİ Party deputy says law should set time limit for prosecutors to file their indictments
İYİ Party deputy Hasan Subaşı has submitted a draft bill to parliament suggesting defining a time limit within which prosecutors must file their indictments against the accused. Subaşı has said that many people facing charges in Turkey are kept behind bars for several years pending their trials, with prosecutors taking a considerable amount of time to file the indictments at the courts.
Duvar English
İYİ (Good) Party deputy Hasan Subaşı has suggested that a time period should be set for an indictment to be filed, as it takes a very long period of time for prosecutors to submit the indictments to the court.
Subaşı said that Turkey's Criminal Procedure Law No. 5271 does not limit the length of time that prosecutors are given to prepare an indictment and therefore submitted a draft proposal to parliament to regulate this issue on Sept. 30.
The lawmaker has pointed out that many people facing charges in Turkey are kept behind bars for several years pending their trials, with prosecutors taking a considerable amount of time to file the indictments.
“Especially when those standing trial are opposition figures, these investigation files want to be turned into a tool to wear them out....Due to investigation files which are not looked into for many years, people are seen as suspects. Those looking for jobs cannot find employment, cannot attain a job in the public sector due to their negative security reports and ostracized from society as if they are criminals,” he said.
“With an investigation file which is prepared in an arbitrary way and is not finalized for many years, innocent people's lives can be ruined.”
By giving the example of jailed philanthropist Osman Kavala, Subaşı said that people in Turkey are kept imprisoned without even knowing what they are accused of. “As a result of the political will's manipulation, our judiciary institutions, which are the guarantors of personal rights and freedoms, cast a shadow on people's lives and are used as a tool of oppression in the hands of the politics, within the framework of instructions,” he said.
On Sept. 29, Turkey’s Constitutional Court postponed its decision to review Kavala’s appeal with regards to his ongoing arrest, citing the impending indictment against the philanthropist. Just a couple of hours after the Constitutional Court’s statement, Istanbul prosecutors submitted the new indictment against Kavala to the relevant court, concerning “espionage” charges.