Military Adjusts Regulations to Conform with EU Law

The regulations will extend new rights to military personnel convicted of crimes. Attracting the most attention in the bill is the abolishment of capital punishment for crimes committed against the chief officer except in times of mobilization for war. The bill prepared by the Ministry of Defense includes the following:

"Execution as mentioned in Article 26 of the Code of Military Criminal Law will be preserved in Article 23, which regulates the general regulations related to mobilization for war and in circumstances of war. Life sentences instead of capital punishment will be handed down for murderers deliberately killing their superior or chief. The regulations, ‘Punishment by execution is legal in those grave conditions,’ which is stipulated for the crimes of ‘debt, embezzlement, bribery and theft,’ has been redrawn to apply in the case of extraordinary circumstances, mobilization for war and the continuation of war. That regulation was rewritten to read: ‘As long as the mobilization and state of war continues, execution is carried out in extraordinary events."

The personal searches and house arrest that military personnel have been subject to will be also adjusted to civil law. Searching one’s clothing and pockets will only be possible through the decision of a military court. The requirement to bring an accused before a judge within a maximum of seven days will be decreased to four days for group crimes. Military suspects will "immediately" inform their family when they are arrested. As for claims of bad treatment and torture, a regulation stating that "findings obtained through a violation of the law cannot be accepted as evidence" will take its place in military law.

Zekai Ozcinar / Ankara / TURKEY