Evaluation of the Police Chief’s Power for Detention in Terms of Personal Freedom and Security
Kolluk Amirinin Gözaltı Yetkisinin Kişi Özgürlüğü ve Güvenliği Açısından Değerlendirilmesi
Coşkun KOÇ
This article studies the power for detention assigned to police chiefs by Law No. 6638 in terms of the principles of criminal procedure law and human rights standards. With the Article 13 of Law No. 6638 dated as March 27, 2015, Article 91 (titled as “Detention”) of the Criminal Procedure Law No. 5271, was amended. According to the old regulation, the decision for detention of a person caught by the police could only be given by the public prosecutor, but after the amendment, this power is also assigned to police chiefs to be determined by administrative chiefs. Though being limited to specific cases and the cases where persons are caught red-handed, sharing of this power of the public prosecutor with the police chiefs is in violation of the Article 19 of the 1982 Constitution and Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights which regulates the right to personal liberty and security. This is because the amendment weakens the control of the public prosecutor, which forms a legal guarantee.
Police, Detention, Legal Guarantee, Personal Freedom, Personal Security.
Bu makalede 6638 sayılı Kanun ile kolluk amirlerine verilen gözaltı yetkisi, ceza muhakemesi hukukunun ilkeleri ve insan hakları standartları açısından irdelenmektedir. 27 Mart 2015 tarihli 6638 Sayılı Kanunun 13. maddesi ile 5271 sayılı Ceza Muhakemesi Kanunun “Gözaltı” başlıklı 91. maddesinde değişiklik yapılmıştır. Eski düzenlemeye göre kolluk tarafından yakalanan bir kişi hakkında gözaltına alma kararı sadece Cumhuriyet savcısı tarafından verilebilirken yeni düzenleme ile mülki amirlerce belirlenecek kolluk amirlerine de bu yetki tanınmıştır. Suçüstü halleri ve belli suçlarla sınırlı da olsa Cumhuriyet savcısına ait olan bu yetkinin kolluk amirleri ile paylaşılması kişi özgürlüğü ve güvenliği hakkını düzenleyen Avrupa İnsan Hakları Sözleşmesi’nin 5. Maddesi ile 1982 Anayasasının 19. maddesiyle çelişmektedir. Zira bu değişiklik ile savcının hukuk garantisi teşkil eden denetimi, zayıflamış bulunmaktadır.
Kolluk, Gözaltı, Hukuk Garantisi, Kişi Özgürlüğü, Kişi Güvenliği.
Introduction
Restriction of the rights of criminal suspects is subject to strict rules in liberal democracies. It is the basic condition of being a democratic society and a state of law that individuals trust they will not be deprived of their freedoms arbitrarily. The very first and the greatest assurance for the non-arbitrariness of the deprival of freedoms is that the decisions of detention are lawful.
Detention is the temporary annihilation of personal freedom for the purpose of completing the arrested person’s investigation by the order of the public prosecutor until such person is brought before the judge or is released and the detention period is limited to the time prescribed by laws.1 As can be understood from the author’s definition, the arrested person is not kept under detention automatically according to the Turkish criminal procedure. According to the very first version of the Criminal Procedure Law No. 5271, the power to take such decision belonged to the public prosecutor. However, the amendment made by Law No. 6638 on Article 91/4 of the Criminal Procedure Law formed an exception to this power and the power was shared. The detention, which had been the most important consequence of the arrest, meant that the suspect will be taken into custody after a prosecutor’s decision since the 2005 reform. However, this particular power to take someone into custody was also given to police forces, which is considered to be the wrong move.2
This paper studies the police chief’s power for detention. The norms taken as basis in this study are the Article 19 of the Constitution and Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights which regulates the rights of personal freedom and security.
