by Kasim Ileri
ANKARA
A package of amendments to several laws, also known as the "new democratization package", was submitted by Turkey's governing AK Party to the Turkish Parliamentary Speaker's office.
Under the proposals, specially authorized courts, primarily for terror cases, will be abolished with current cases being transferred to criminal courts. The period that suspects can be held in custody will be reduced from ten to five years.
The penalty for collecting personal data illegally, known as "unlawful profiling" and publicizing will be significantly increased. It also proposes an increase in penalties for those who do not destroy or delete personal data after use in a court of law, including wiretapes or any other kind of surveillance.
The package proposes the "requirement for concrete proof" in the decision to detain, arrest, search, confiscate properties, wiretap and appoint a confidential enquirer and overseen by common consent of criminal court members instead of a single judge or prosecutor as in the case previously with the specially authorized courts.
What is more, the decision for tapping, technical follow up and confiscation on any property will not be applicable in cases whereby there is not a direct link to defined crimes relating to terrorism.
The Package aims to tighten protection of property rights by proposing that the confiscation of any property of a suspect should be reported by related institutions. The Council of Bank Audit and Regulations (BBDK), the Capital Market Board (SPK), the Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK) and the Turkish Accounting and Auditing Standards Board are required to provide reports of how the suspect obtained the property which can then be used in the court to prove that whether the confiscated property has any connection witht the crime or not.
The package proposes that a copy of any computer or recording device of a suspect confiscated in accordance with the inquiry decision should be given to the defendant so that he can defend himself against fake recordings and documentation.
The tapping period of a confirmed suspect will be lowered from 6 months to 3 months and the technical follow up period will be lowered from 8 weeks to 4 weeks as proposed in the package. These tapping and technical follow-up periods can only be renewed once.
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