The long-awaited draft prepared by the Ministry of Justice—known publicly as the 7th Judicial Package and titled “Amendments to the Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law and Certain Other Laws”—has been submitted to the Presidency of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. The package includes penal execution provisions, and details have been announced. Under the proposed changes, sentences may be postponed for mothers whose child is ill. The package also addresses drug enforcement measures and other legal reforms.
Severe penalties are proposed for mandatory mediation in rental disputes. Whether a general amnesty will be enacted remains uncertain.
All articles, provisions and details of the 7th Judicial Package are presented in this article.
What Does the 7th Judicial Package Contain?
Many people wonder whether prisoners will be granted amnesty. The 7th Judicial Package, postponed earlier due to the earthquake disaster, was submitted to Parliament today. Sponsored by AK Party deputies, the draft allows postponement of sentence execution for female convicts who have a child under 18 who is disabled, in need of care, or suffering from a serious illness, provided their prison term is less than ten years. Postponement may be granted for up to one year under certain obligations and can be extended twice in six-month periods, allowing an additional two years. There is no article in this package establishing a general amnesty.
AK Party submitted a 48-article bill titled “Amendments to the Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law and Certain Other Laws.” Among the proposed criminal law changes are increases to penalties related to narcotics. Manufacturing and trafficking of named substances—such as synthetic cathinones and their derivatives, synthetic opioids and derivatives, amphetamines and derivatives—would see the minimum prison term raised from 10 to 15 years.
Will There Be a General Amnesty?
The 7th Judicial Package does not contain a full general amnesty. During the pandemic, approximately 120,000 inmates in open prisons were released on leave, and those leave periods were extended through July 31, 2023.
Extensions for Treatment or Supervision Periods for Drug Offenders in the 7th Judicial Package
In addition to increasing penalties for production and trafficking of drug derivatives, the draft proposes changes to the treatment and supervised release processes applied to drug users. The aim is to create a more effective system. Under the proposed changes, extensions of treatment or supervised release measures would increase from one year to two years, allowing suspects to remain under treatment or supervision for longer periods.
The draft also requires prosecutors to refer suspects at least twice a year to the relevant institution to determine whether they have used drugs during the postponement period. Prosecutors’ postponement decisions must be communicated to law enforcement units. Amendments to the Probation Services Law would introduce tailored rehabilitation measures for drug-dependent persons.
Convicted persons for drug use, and prisoners convicted of other offenses who are found to be drug-dependent, will be required to participate in treatment and rehabilitation programs within penal institutions. Provisions are included to ensure the prompt establishment and uninterrupted operation of centers for treatment and rehabilitation, including budget allocations and personnel assignments by the relevant ministries. The draft also permits judicial authorization for undercover investigators assigned to drug production and trafficking offenses to make audio or video recordings in public places and workplaces. Measures protecting the identities of informants who report the seizure and recovery of assets from trafficking, manufacturing, illegal hemp cultivation, or money laundering tied to these crimes are also proposed.
Provisions for the Bar and Legal Aid System
Regulations are being developed to facilitate access to favorable loans and financing for lawyers to cover office setup costs. Newly admitted lawyers would receive financial relief: bar fees would be waived for the first five years of practice to support early-career attorneys. Revenues for legal aid offices would be increased to strengthen the legal aid system. A provision detailing notaries’ “ascertainment services” is expanded to include evidence identification work.
Amendments to the Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law
The package includes changes to the Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law. Seizure orders for residential properties would require judicial approval before enforcement by the enforcement director. Personal items belonging to family members and movable household goods used jointly by the family are planned to be listed among items exempt from seizure. It will be explicitly prohibited to seize amounts exceeding what is necessary to cover the debt subject to enforcement. Provisions are included to more effectively dispose of goods held in bailee warehouses even after the seizure has been lifted.
Amendments on Migrant Smuggling Crimes
The package contains measures addressing migrant smuggling. To strengthen deterrence and improve efforts against this crime, the statutory minimum penalty would increase from three to five years. If vehicles, equipment, or materials seized in migrant smuggling cases are directly related to national defense or internal security services, the draft allows their allocation to the Turkish Armed Forces, the General Directorate of Security, the Gendarmerie General Command, or the Coast Guard Command. For foreigners subject to criminal measures and issued judicial control orders preventing exit from the country, public prosecutors would be able to request the removal of those restrictions from the relevant governor’s office; judges may order deportation where the administration deems the foreign national’s presence dangerous.
Mediation-Related Reforms
Disputes arising from lease relationships (except eviction through non-judicial enforcement), partition of common property, condominium-related disputes and neighbor-rights conflicts would be made subject to mandatory mediation as a precondition for filing court. Disputes concerning transfer of real property or establishment of limited real rights on property would become eligible for voluntary mediation. The draft aligns domestic law with the Singapore Convention on mediation, to which the country is a party.
For commercial actions and disputes arising from employment contracts, claims for annulment, negative declaratory suits and restitution claims would fall under mandatory mediation. In commercial disputes, an agreement document signed by counsel for the parties and the mediator would be treated as an enforceable instrument without requiring an enforcement notation. Mediators would be obliged to inform the primary parties to the dispute about the mediation process and the final minutes prepared at the end of mediation.
Amendments respond to Constitutional Court annulment decisions. Changes to Article 193 of the Criminal Procedure Code would require that the defendant be questioned not only for a “conviction” decision but also where a decision of “no penalty” or a “security measure” is to be issued.
As noted above, the proposal allows postponement of sentence execution for female inmates who have a child under 18 who is disabled, in need of care, or seriously ill, provided their sentence is less than ten years. The postponement may be granted for up to one year and extended in six-month periods for up to an additional two years under specified obligations.
The draft removes the distinction between public and private legal entities for administrative sanctions, making all legal persons subject to the responsibilities set forth in the relevant article.
Family members of prison directors, chief wardens, and prison officers who become disabled in the line of duty would be granted employment rights in public service.
A temporary article allows individual applications pending before the Constitutional Court that claim violations of the right to trial within a reasonable time or the right to enforcement of court decisions to be reviewed by the Commission established under Law No. 6384 upon request of the applicant. Considering the possible workload, the Commission’s structure and working procedures would be revised. The monetary threshold for civil disputes heard in Commercial Courts of First Instance by a single judge under simplified procedure would be raised from 500,000 Turkish lira to 1,000,000 Turkish lira.