After the public prosecutor received news that a crime was committed they have a discretion power to immediately start an investigation or not, whether to file a public action and to carry out the case until the public case is concluded in Turkish law; if there is a sufficient suspicion as a result of the investigation and when the perpetrator and the act they committed is known.
There are some provisions in Turkish law that eliminate the reasons for punishment. Examples of these are “effective repentance” institution or a reason for “impunity”. The public prosecutor can order a decision of the non-prosecution at the investigation phase if they decide that one of these reasons exist. So they do file a criminal case against suspects.
The public prosecutor has a discretion to decide to reprieve to file a public prosecution for 5 years in some cases instead of deciding a non-prosecution. This aspects are if the upper limit for an offense requires a prison sentence of three years or less. Even if there is sufficient suspicion that the crime has occurred the public prosecutor will be able to use their discretion to postpone of filing a public case. But the crimes under settlement and prepayment is excluded from this discretion of the public prosecutor. The person or suspect who has been harmed by the crime has the right to appeal this decision of the public prosecutor.
These conditions must be met for the public prosecutor to decide to reprieve to file a public prosecution: the suspect must not previously been convicted of an intentional crime, there is an opinion that the suspect will avoid committing a crime when the public prosecutor decides to reprieve to file, the decision to reprieve is more beneficial for the society and the suspect than filing a public lawsuit and there must be an elimination of the damage caused by the commission of the crime.
There will be a decision of non-prosecution given by the public prosecutor if an intentional crime is not committed by the suspect within the said delay period.
The rule on suspension does not apply in some cases such as establishing an organization to commit a crime, leading this organization or being a member of this organization, committing a crime within the framework of this organization’s activities, the crime committed by a public official, a crime against a public official due to their duties, military crimes committed by soldiers and criminal offenses against sexual integrity.
Antalya Criminal Lawyer and Antalya Criminal Attorney Baris Erkan Celebi and his Antalya Law Firm represent crime victims in various crimes before Turkish Criminal Courts under Turkish Criminal Law. Discretion power
