Court Decree Without Lawyer

According to the law proposal of Justice and Development Party (AKP), the courts will be able to decree in the absence of a lawyer except children trials.

"The prosecutor is a party at the legal proceedings whereas the court is independent"

"According to the new practice, the court will serve a summons to the lawyer and if the lawyer do not attend the hearing despite of this summon, the court will be able to decree and this might create an obstacle against the right to defense in some cases.

"The courts do not collect defense evidences in some cases and this also violates the right to defense.  The hearings are conducted according to the expert reports taken by prosecutor during the investigation.

"The prosecutors also have the right to consult the expert in preparation stage however the court can never move according to the expert reports provided by the prosecutor at the prosecution stage. Because, the prosecutor is a party at the legal proceedings whereas the court is independent."

"Of course this new legislation will adversely affect the right to defense. The court does not collect the defense evidences; this is the key issue and this occurs within the practices of the court, not with legal amendments" told Lawyer Ergin Cinmen,

"The trials prolonged unnecessarily"

AKP declared the reasons of this law proposal as follows:

*The trials are prolonged unnecessarily when the defenders are not present at the final hearings of the complex trials with multiple defendants.

* Therefore, the following issue is introduced through an amendment: "If the public prosecutor announces his opinion about the merit without limiting the right to defense and when the defender is present at the hearing or if the opinion of the court is defender is already announced to the defender, the court will be able to decree in the absence of a lawyer who is not present at the hearing without any acceptable excuse." (EKN)