Criminal Law Definition and Scope
Criminal Law is the body of law that relates to crimes and prescribed penalties. Therefore, criminal law is the branch of law that involves the serious interference with fundamental rights since it prohibits certain acts and prescribes penalties against them. Nevertheless, criminal law aims to protect human rights and freedoms and public order.
Criminal Procedure refers to the judicial processes that begin with the suspicion that a crime has been committed and consist of the investigation and prosecution phases, aiming to uncover the material fact. On the other hand, this too has certain limits since the attainment of the material fact at all costs is not accepted. All procedures and processes of the criminal procedure must be carried out with respect for human rights and within legal boundaries. For all these reasons, it is of great importance for everyone who is in the position of a suspect or defendant to be able to effectively benefit from the right of defense.
Investigation Phase
The investigation phase of the criminal procedure begins when there is notice of the existence of a suspicion that a crime may have been committed. This phase is generally conducted by the prosecutor in a confidential and written manner. In this phase, the prosecutor must collect all evidence for and against the suspect, either personally or through law enforcement agencies. Besides the prosecutor, the Magistrates’ Courts (Sulh Ceza Hakimlikleri) also have important roles in criminal investigations since they ensure that the criminal proceedings are conducted in accordance with the law.
Prosecution Phase and Criminal Case
The investigation phase is followed by the prosecution phase, which begins with the acceptance of the indictment by the criminal court and continues until the verdict becomes final. This phase is the stage where the criminal case is heard. Although criminal cases are generally heard in the Criminal Courts of First Instance (Asliye Ceza Mahkemeleri) or Assize Courts (Ağır Ceza Mahkemeleri), criminal courts are not limited to these. Besides of these criminal courts, there are special criminal courts too. We can list all criminal courts as follows:
Criminal Courts of First Instance (Asliye Ceza Mahkemeleri): These courts are authorized to hear case, if the crime subject to trial is punishable by imprisonment for 10 years or less. Examples of crimes falling under the jurisdiction of the Criminal Courts of First Instance include; intentional injury (excluding TCK art. 87/4), reckless injury, insult, threat, sexual harassment, fraud, accessing a data processing system, and capital market fraud.
Assize Courts (Ağır Ceza Mahkemeleri): These courts are authorized to hear case, if the crime subject to trial is punishable by imprisonment for more than 10 years. Examples of crimes falling under the jurisdiction of the Assize Courts include murder, drug trafficking, aggravated sexual assault, aggravated fraud, robbery, embezzlement, and official document forgery.
Juvenile Courts (Çocuk Mahkemeleri): These courts are authorized to hear cases which fall under the jurisdiction of the Criminal Courts of First Instance but filed against juvenile offenders who were not 18 years old when the crime was committed.
Juvenile Assize Courts (Çocuk Ağır Ceza Mahkemeleri): These courts are authorized to hear cases which fall under the jurisdiction of the Assize Courts but filed against juvenile offenders who were not 18 years old when the crime was committed.
Intellectual and Industrial Property Criminal Courts (Fikri ve Sınai Haklar Ceza Mahkemeleri): These courts are responsible for criminal cases filed due to crimes in the field of Intellectual Property. The crimes that fall under the jurisdiction of these courts are defined in Article 30 of Law No. 6769 on Industrial Property and Articles 71 and 72 of Law No. 5846 on Intellectual and Artistic Works.
Execution Criminal Courts (İcra Ceza Mahkemeleri): These courts are responsible for crimes in the field of Execution and Bankruptcy Law. These crimes are defined between Articles 331 and 345 of the Execution and Bankruptcy Law and are prosecuted according to the procedure prescribed in this law.
The prosecution does not end with the decision of the criminal court. Parties of the criminal case can file an appeal against the decision of the court, unless it is one of the decisions listed in Article 273/3 of the Criminal Procedure Code. The appeal review is carried out by the Regional Courts of Justice (Bölge Adliye Mahkemeleri). Depending on the type decision an appeal to the Court of Cassation (Yargıtay) is also possible. In this case, if the Court of Cassation upholds the appealed decision, the decision becomes final, and the prosecution phase thus ends.
Legal Counsel in Criminal Justice
Criminal law is the branch of law that involves the serious interference with fundamental rights and limits human freedom. Therefore, it is of great importance for everyone who is in the position of a suspect or defendant to be able to effectively benefit from the right to a defence. Furthermore, anyone who is a victim of a crime or has suffered harm as a result of a crime have the right to take part in the phases of the criminal procedure as a complainant.
Knowledge and experience in the field of Criminal Law are necessary for developing and implementing an effective defense strategy for the suspect and defendant, or for the complainant to effectively access justice. Therefore, receiving legal counsel is of great importance for the all parties of criminal justice.
As Celil Aktaş Law Firm, criminal law is one of our specialized areas of law. We represent our clients in all areas of criminal law and at every stage of the criminal procedure, either as the defense counsel for the suspect or defendant or as the representative for the complainant.
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