ID :
163135
Tue, 02/22/2011 - 16:27
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/163135
The shortlink copeid
Turkish Judicial board appoints chief prosecutors to prospective regional appeals courts
ANKARA (A.A) - 22.02.2011 - Turkey's Higher Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) on Tuesday appointed chief prosecutors to nine regional appeals courts planned to established in a bid to reduce the number of cases awaiting verdict at the country's two top judicial bodies, the Supreme Court of Appeals and the Council of State, the highest administrative court in Turkey.
The nine regional appeals courts are planned to be based in Izmir, Bursa, Istanbul, Adana, Ankara, Samsun, Erzurum, Konya, and Diyarbakir.
Turkey's highly centralized judicial system has often been criticized for being too slow. The debate has recently been fueled after a 2005 amendment to the country's criminal code entered into effect in 2011, which ordered the release of suspects who have stood trial without arrest for over five years including several operatives of the Turkish Hezbollah -- a Sunni Islamist terrorist organization with no ties to Lebanese Hezbollah.
Eighteen Hezbollah suspects who have stood trial since July 2000 were set free including leaders such as Edip Gumus and Hacı Inan, who were charged with murdering 103 people by burying them alive.
"The basic problem of the Turkish judicial system is that it is too slow. The number of cases closed at the Supreme Court of Appeals due to statute of limitations in 2010 alone reached around 20 thousand. Cases pile up 25-30 percent each year with an annual 1.9 million. The same also holds true for the Council of State. And now, we are working on the introduction of nine regional appeals courts to reduce those numbers," Sadullah Ergin, Turkey's justice minister, said in a Turkey-EU meeting in southern province of Hatay on Monday.
The nine regional appeals courts are planned to be based in Izmir, Bursa, Istanbul, Adana, Ankara, Samsun, Erzurum, Konya, and Diyarbakir.
Turkey's highly centralized judicial system has often been criticized for being too slow. The debate has recently been fueled after a 2005 amendment to the country's criminal code entered into effect in 2011, which ordered the release of suspects who have stood trial without arrest for over five years including several operatives of the Turkish Hezbollah -- a Sunni Islamist terrorist organization with no ties to Lebanese Hezbollah.
Eighteen Hezbollah suspects who have stood trial since July 2000 were set free including leaders such as Edip Gumus and Hacı Inan, who were charged with murdering 103 people by burying them alive.
"The basic problem of the Turkish judicial system is that it is too slow. The number of cases closed at the Supreme Court of Appeals due to statute of limitations in 2010 alone reached around 20 thousand. Cases pile up 25-30 percent each year with an annual 1.9 million. The same also holds true for the Council of State. And now, we are working on the introduction of nine regional appeals courts to reduce those numbers," Sadullah Ergin, Turkey's justice minister, said in a Turkey-EU meeting in southern province of Hatay on Monday.
