What is Effective Remorse?
Effective Remorse it is a situation that is applied after a person regrets his crime by using his own free will, removing all the negativities after the crime and contributing positively to the justice. Effective remorse law and penalty reduction law are valid for some criminal offenses specified in the Turkish Penal Code. In order to apply an effective repentance law according to the punishment received by the person, the penalty reduction is applied to the intentional situation and the positive behaviors of the person.
Effective Remorse and Penalty Discount
In case of compensation for the damages incurred by the person or persons who have become aggrieved due to his/her action, and in case of positive reflections of the person who committed the crime, the provisions of forgiveness in the Turkish Penal Code begin to be implemented by the judicial organs. Many of the regulations, which are called effective remorse in the law and which are exclusively foreseen for each crime type, do not technically have the characteristics of effective remorse, but mean rewarding the perpetrator in return for a certain benefit.
In case of active regret:
• If the perpetrator reveals his accomplices during the investigation and prosecution,
• If someaone tells the prosecutor or the judge about those who helped the crime, who instigated the crime,
• If someaone helps in revealing the crime and punishing the criminals,
• If the loss of the person who is victimized due to the crime committed is compensated,
person can benefit from the effective repentance law.
In this context, the perpetrator, who will benefit from effective remorse, should make an attempt to eliminate the negative effects of his crime, the perpetrator’s remorse for the crime should not remain at the level of simple sadness, this remorse should have an “effective” aspect that reflects on the outside world. In this respect, the damage suffered by the victim must be completely remedied.
While effective remorse provisions provide a reduction in the punishment to be given to the perpetrator, some effective remorse provisions result in the complete elimination of the punishment to be given to the perpetrator.
In cases where there are effective repentance reasons that abolish the penalty; there is a crime committed by the perpetrator, but with some considerations, the legislator has deemed it appropriate not to punish the persons who commit these crimes, which are the subject of the crime.
Effective remorse and reduction of punishment necessitate a separate examination in terms of each crime type. Because the penalty reduction rate to be applied according to the type of crime also differs. At the same time, the reduction in the penalty to be given varies according to the moment of effective remorse.
What is Attribution Crime?
“The concept of attribution-criminal statement can be defined as the statements of a person charged with a crime during an investigation, containing a criminal charge to another person in connection with the crime charged against him.” In other words, by isolating himself from the crime, the person accuses people other than himself.
In the “membership of a terrorist organization” trials the main discourse developed by the secret/privacy defendants against the witness statements in the hearings is “Witness attribution is a crime”. However, the person who benefits from effective remorse tells about his “community past” and explains in detail the activities he is involved in, in other words he does not reject his own activities. “
Human communities are inherent in all activities of “community” and secret/privacy types of organized and organized structures. In other words, it is not possible to have actions/activity/situations that can take place alone, without anyone else. Based on this basic fact, of course, the person who testifies under the law of effective remorse will speak of those with whom he has engaged in the same activity.
Situation for Community and Individuals
In the investigations carried out against the members of the community after July 15, many suspects benefited from the effective remorse provisions during the investigation phase. Especially in the in the Turkish Armed Forces, nearly half of the soldiers who were found as suspects due to “payphone and sequential search criteria” contributed to the deciphering of the secret/privacy structure by taking advantage of their rights in the Law.
On the other hand, most of the members of the secret/privacy structure, who were seen as the first group to be kidnapped from the fire, were taken abroad in a controlled manner before the July 15 coup attempt and embezzled in various countries. Some of the secret/privacy brothers who were caught while hiding in the country were released after being in prison for a short time, making use of effective remorse in a controlled manner. Later, they were taken abroad with the coordination of the secret/privacy structure.
There are actually two aspects to the issue called effective remorse. The first is the legal aspect and the second is the human aspect. From a legal point of view, the “legislator” gives the right to choose those who are involved in organized crime knowingly or unknowingly, and eliminates “organized criminal organizations”, which are difficult to dissolve/destroy by nature. In this way, the legislator also ensures that the individuals involved in the crime do not break away from the society and partially from their status.
As for the humanitarian aspect, it means confronting themselves and their past for people who have voluntarily taken part in an organization and have worked in line with the covert goals of this organization, the results of which cause grave crimes, unknowingly or knowingly, thinking that it is in compliance with the law.
From the point of view of the “community”, effective remorse is expressed with intense propaganda such as “deceiving the regime, betrayal of the cause, selling off fellow fighters”. Now there are real secret/privacy structures that are known and accepted by everyone. It is an undeniable fact that these secret/privacy organizations have committed numerous crimes and have involved many people in these crimes, aeven if in a secret/privacy structure structure. Tens of thousands of people, who have been drawn to these structures and secret/privacy structure activities with ideals such as “thinking of a cause” and “serving Islam and humanity” since childhood, have become/involved in crime.
Most of these people, who spent almost their entire lives in “community” were subjected to legal proceedings, arrested, convicted or went abroad illegally. Many people, whether in Turkey or not, feel that their lives are wasted by ” secret/privacy structures ” and the community. They were angry, disappointed, and angry with the community administrators and the functioning of the community at the sight of so many people being criminalized. They are too awake to be fooled by campaigns with slogans such as “Come, Let’s Get Fresh”. The “community” which took away their profession, family, freedom and hope of living, no longer means anything to them.
In addition to the expulsions, social exclusion and economic problems, most people also experience a psychological problem due to the fact that the truths and thoughts they have “believed” for years have come to nothing. Concepts/values such as needs for meaning and value, future, happiness, and hoping/being hopeful have been shaken/destroyed at their foundations.
The basic questions asked by the person who approached the events and the process somewhat objectively are as follows; “Wasn’t our sole purpose to serve the Islam and the nation? Why did I come to this situation and how was I used? What was the sin of me and my family, my children?” The majority of the victims in the process see the “community administrators” and secret/privacy decision-making mechanisms or organizations, who have been making the decisions of the series of mistakes since 2008, at the beginning of the chain of problems that are right and need to be solved.
Administrative and Judicial Errors
Of course, the issue of effective repentance has aspects that look at the individual and the “community” as well as the judiciary and the administration. In this context:
- Drawing the boundaries of the “organization” incorrectly,
- Tolerance shown to the reactionary practices of the judicial police,
- As always, the detention measure turns into “punishment”,
- The effective remorse regulation is worn down by the judicial police with some practices that do not comply with its spirit and purpose,
- The use of discretionary powers against the accused in trials and criminal courts,
- Forming an opinion by the judicial police about the situations of those who want to benefit from TPC (TCK) 221 without making an in-depth examination,
- The fact that the “private” diagnosis and identification, which should be the most important agenda, does not work properly,
- The transformation of Statutory Decree Commissions (KHK) into “political/administrative” rather than “legal”,
- Giving the images of “privileged trial” by not applying the discretionary powers applied to some famous people reflected in the media to the members of the community in general,
- Negligence in delaying the legal applications of persons who have been acquitted or who have decided that there is no need for prosecution, and in reinstatement of their rights,
deficiencies, mistakes and problems paved the way for all kinds of abuse and perception studies of the organized structure, which we shortened as ” secret/privacy structure”.
Proof of Organized Structure: “Civil Crisis Committee” Document
The basic strategy that the community hierarchy wanted to use for legal proceedings, investigations, statements and trials since 2015 has been to deny, even if it is the most concrete data or the statement of a 30-year acquaintance. The decision makers of the community had even prepared a guide of rules that should be followed/followed in both the judicial law enforcement (police) and prosecution and trial stages, for reasons such as the fact that the people mentioned in the investigations, which started in 2015 and reached massive dimensions after July 15, did not benefit from effective remorse, and that private organizations were not deciphered.
The “Civil Crisis Committee” held its first meeting in Istanbul on March 15, 2015, after discussing detailed agendas, a to-do list that considers every detail regarding the detention and courthouse processes, and how to respond/not be answered in the judicial police interrogation, with the title of “interrogation questions” for how to behave. It was decided in writing and great detail.
The document you will read below shows how the decision makers of the “community” approached the process and events, and how people who had not crossed paths with the organized movement and perhaps the “secret/privacy” wing throughout their lives were put in the same sack by the leaders of the community themselves. The ignorance to act with these instructions has finally revealed in tens of thousands of victims.
