Justice was among the primary areas devastated during the governments of the AKP. While the citizens’ belief in justice decreases day by day, Türkiye has witnessed countless decisions that have opened the door to debates on the “politicisation of the judiciary”. The decisions of the courts regarding the opposition, which are debated on the grounds of being “unfair”, have led to a gradual decline in trust in the judiciary.
The judicial pressure on dissidents has left no room to sleep in prisons. Dozens of people, including mayors from opposition parties and journalists, were deprived of their liberty and separated from their loved ones due to indictments that were not written for long periods. Pre-trial detention, defined in the Criminal Procedure Code with the phrase “It is not a punishment, but a temporary protection measure”, was removed from being a measure and transformed into an instrument of punishment during the AKP governments.
A SHAMEFUL CONVICTION
The justification of the criticisms that the application of pre-trial detention is frequently used as a means of punishment has been revealed by the data of the Ministry of Justice Human Rights Department. It was determined that Türkiye has been convicted dozens of times during the AKP governments on the grounds of “violation of the Right to Liberty and Security”.
It was observed that Article 5 of the ECHR, to which Türkiye is a party, which regulates and contains the provision “Everyone has the right to liberty and security. No one shall be deprived of their liberty except in exceptional cases and in accordance with a procedure prescribed by law”, was violated repeatedly. In the 2003-2025 period spent with the AKP governments, the number of conviction decisions handed down against Türkiye on the grounds of violating Article 5 of the ECHR was 865.
DOZENS OF VIOLATIONS
The number of decisions on the “violation of the Right to Liberty and Security” handed down against Türkiye reached a peak with 95 decisions in 2007, when the first term of the AKP governments ended. The number of decisions regarding the violation of the Right to Liberty and Security taken against Türkiye in the 2003-2007 period went down in the records as 250.
In the 2008-2012 period, a total of 307 rulings were established against Türkiye within the scope of the “violation of the Right to Liberty and Security”. The number of violation decisions taken in the 2013-2017 and 2018-2021 periods was realised as 135 and 90, respectively. It was stated that Türkiye was convicted 83 times in the 2022-2025 period on the grounds that it violated the Right to Liberty and Security.
The number of decisions regarding the violation of Liberty and Security taken against Türkiye at the ECHR was listed according to periods as follows:
2003-2007: 250
2008-2012: 307
2013-2017: 135
2018-2021: 90
2022-2025: 83
Note: This article is translated from the original article titled “İstisna” kaideyi bozdu: Tutuklama olağan özgürlük istisna, published in BirGün newspaper on June 23, 2026.
Kaynak: BirGün