Turkish prosecutors limited to spending one hour per case

In 2023, Turkish prosecutors were assigned to an average of 1,580 files, allowing them to spend only one hour per file. The number of cases per judge was 835 which led a judge to spend only two hours on one case.

Friday December 15 2023 10:24 am

Duvar English

While Turkish prosecutors could only spend one hour and 12 minutes per file, the judges could only allocate two hours and 12 minutes per case in 2023, according to the main opposition Republican Peoples Party lawmaker Sevda Erdan Kılıç's report on the performance criteria imposed upon judges and prosecutors by Justice Ministry.

While there were 1,543 files per prosecutor in 2022, this number increased to 1,580 in 2023, reported by the daily Birgün. Kılıç said that a total of seven files were assigned for a prosecutor's daily shift.

In 2023, the number of cases per judge was 835. Kılıç asked, "Is it possible to deliver justice from a case that can only be investigated for two hours and 12 minutes?"

The Justice Ministry's Annual Report for 2022 also revealed that the workload of judges and prosecutors increased. According to the report, the number of cases per judge, which was 672 in the previous period, was determined as 621 in 2022. However, the number of cases per judge increased to 785 at the end of the year.

Kılıç underscored that the workload on judges and prosecutors was explained by the Justice Ministry as "strengthening the right to trial within a reasonable time,” and added, "However, this target is not met either. The Constitutional Court says so as well."

The Constitutional Court ruled on the violation of rights in 55,000 applications on the grounds that the trial was not held within a reasonable time.

The ministry’s target to increase the number of judges and prosecutors per population has not been met also.