The investigation process must be fair and equitable. The investigation must first of all be initiated with the suspicion of a crime. This suspicion of crime must also have reasonable grounds and legal evidence. The routine general social or economic behavior of people cannot be directly subject to a criminal investigation. It is a requirement of the right to a fair trial that the investigation is based on evidence and carried out in good faith.
In a news about Turkey that attracted great attention on Twitter this week, it is seen that in an investigation carried out within the scope of FETO investigations, attending the funeral and praying at the graves of people who were previously subjected to FETO investigation were the subject of investigation. From the relevant part of the investigation document, the citizen is seen to have been asked why he has attended the funeral and prayed at the graveside.
As it can be seen, the ordinary rituals performed with purely human feelings and thoughts, and at some point as a requirement of religious belief, have been turned into acts of terror. The fact that such rituals of social and religious life, which have no organizational character in the context of crime, are subject to terrorism investigations reveals that investigations in Turkey are essentially turned into witch hunts rather than criminal investigations.
The Turkish judiciary, which has now turned into a regime judiciary under the control of politics, reveals its true identity with these examples of unlawfulness. At this point, since the judges and prosecutors appointed to the investigation and prosecution authorities are not independent, it is not possible to expect fair decisions and practices from this judicial system. Unless Turkey returns to the democracy and the rule of law and the judicial authorities are restructured in an independent and impartial manner, we will continue to see these illegal examples.
