A criminal complaint from Turkey’s opposition party alleges Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor Akın Gürlek engaged in extensive corruption, including illicit enrichment and conflicts of interest, raising significant concerns about judicial integrity and accountability in Turkey’s legal system.
Turkey’s judicial crisis deepens as the Istanbul 13th High Criminal Court defies a Constitutional Court ruling that acknowledged violations of urban planner Tayfun Kahraman’s fair trial rights. This reflects a broader trend of judicial insubordination and systemic failure to uphold constitutional authority and human rights.
An indictment against Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu and others raises concerns about Turkey’s legal system, relying on anonymous testimonies to frame legal coordination as criminal. Human rights groups condemn this as judicial harassment of lawyers, reflecting a broader crackdown on legal representation in political cases.
A new scholarly review by Thomas Hochmann centres on the Turkish judge at the European Court of Human Rights, warning that her interpretation of subsidiarity enables “cosmetic compliance,” allowing authoritarian regimes like Turkey’s to cite Strasbourg case law while continuing repression unchecked.
In an exclusive interview, the Arrested Lawyers Initiative speaks with Kenneth Roth, the former Executive Director of Human Rights Watch (HRW) and author of Righting Wrongs: Three Decades on the Front Lines Battling Abusive Governments.