In accordance with the decision of the Council of Judges and Prosecutors (CJP) dated 25.11.2021, it is foreseen to establish new specialized courts for cyber crimes and financial crimes, published in the Official Gazette dated 30.11.2021. The CJP decision will start to be implemented as of December 15, 2021.
Within the scope of the Human Rights Action Plan in April 2021, it was aimed to determine specialized courts in terms of cyber crimes and financial crimes. Therefore, this development towards the establishment of IT courts was eagerly awaited.
Cyber Crimes
In the decision, it was regulated that the purpose of establishment of specialized courts would be to reduce the intensity of incoming work and the distribution of work between departments would be determined by the CJP , taking into account the nature of the work. In addition, it is aimed to ensure both application unity and effectiveness and efficiency.
Specialized courts have been determined in order to try the cases arising from the crimes listed below, in different departments as much as possible, in order to avoid the workload in the same departments. These clasues are;
Criminal code of Turkey 5237 dated 26.09.2004;
- Qualified theft by using information systems (art. 142/2-e)
- Qualified fraud by using information systems, banks or credit institutions as a tool (art. 158/1-f)
- Qualified fraud by introducing himself as a public official or employee of banks, insurance or credit institutions or by saying that he is related to these institutions and organizations (m.158/1-1)
- Entering information systems (m.243)
- Blocking, corrupting, destroying or changing data (m.244)
- Misuse of bank or credit cards (m.245
- Forbidden devices or programs (m.245/A)
- Implementation of security measures specific to legal entities whose benefits are provided unfairly by committing crimes in the field of informatics (art. 245)
Thus, in addition to specialization within the scope of cyber crimes, the decision to establish IT courts has been a good change in terms of both workload and efficiency. Allocating judges who have a master’s/doctorate in the field of informatics or graduated from engineering faculties and being completely independent will have positive results in the short term.
Financial crimes
In order to provide specialization regarding the crimes regulated in the Law No. 6493 on Payment and Securities Settlement Systems, Payment Services and Electronic Money Institutions, it has been decided that the CJP will determine the work distribution between the departments in terms of the intensity and nature of the incoming work and the establishment of specialized courts.
Specialization will be beneficial both in terms of providing a uniform application and increasing efficiency and productivity, since the nature of the lawsuits and works arising from the Law on Payment and Securities Settlement Systems, Payment Services and Electronic Money Institutions No. 6493 is different.