A mediation report from a Turkish criminal file is not a court decision, but the sentences in it about what each party will do carry the weight of one: if the suspect does not perform, the report counts among the documents having the character of a judgment listed in Article 38 of the Enforcement and Bankruptcy Law (Code of Criminal Procedure, Article 253(19)). Where one of the parties lives abroad, the report is translated both for signature and for information. This page follows its fields, its undertakings and the approval at the end.
Who writes it and where it goes
The mediator concludes the process within thirty days of receiving copies of the documents in the file, and the mediation office may extend that period twice at most, each time by not more than twenty days (Article 253(12)). At the end of the negotiations the mediator draws up a report and hands it, with the copies given to them, to the office, which sends the investigation file, the report and any written agreement to the public prosecutor (Article 253(15)). Where the parties settle between themselves before a mediator is appointed or after the offer was refused, a settlement document is drawn up in the same form (Regulation, Article 19).
Three numbers in one heading
In the specimen report published by the Ministry of Justice the heading block opens with the mediation number, the investigation number of the chief public prosecutor’s office and the docket number of the court, followed by the offence, the mediator’s name, registry number and contact address, the date of appointment, the date the copies were handed over and the period began, the date of the offer and any extension. Three numbers of similar shape sit side by side, so each is labelled in English with the authority it belongs to; otherwise an investigation number can be read as a court file. Where the offence is written with the article and paragraph of the Criminal Code, those numbers stay as they are.
Capacities, and the addresses of a party abroad
The specimen has separate blocks for the suspect or accused and their legal representative, defence counsel, the victim, the intervening party or injured party, the legal representative and the attorney. The capacities take separate English terms: injured party for suçtan zarar gören, complainant for müşteki, and victim only for mağdur. Two address fields appear where a party lives abroad: an address in Türkiye and, failing that, the address in their own country. There is also a field for an interpreter; the name and title entered there are carried over as they stand, and whoever later translates the report in writing does not add their own name.
The undertakings: numbered and enforceable
The most sensitive part is what the parties agreed to do and how and when it will be done. Article 18(1) of the Regulation requires the undertakings to be set out separately, in a manner leaving no room for doubt and where possible with sequence numbers; in the specimen, instalments appear as a numbered table. Instalment dates, the place of payment, the account details and who bears any transfer charge are carried over line by line, the sequence numbers are kept and nothing is summarised. Because this block becomes the enforceable part of a document having the character of a judgment if the undertaking is not performed, one date out of place changes what the document does.
Two limits on what the report contains
The report also narrates the stages of information, offer and negotiation. Article 18(2) of the Regulation says that statements made during the negotiations about the commission of the offence are not to be included in the report, and Article 253(20) of the Code provides that such statements cannot be used as evidence in any investigation, prosecution or action. Keeping those limits is not the translator’s task: where the report contains such a sentence, it is translated as it stands and the text is not filtered. The scope of mediation may also be visible, since the Code excludes it for offences against sexual inviolability, for persistent stalking and for insult (Article 253(3)).
The approval takes the place of a decision
At the end come the signatures of the suspect or accused, the victim or intervening party and the mediator, and then the approval. Where the public prosecutor establishes that the settlement rests on the free will of the parties and that the undertaking is lawful, they seal and sign the report and keep it in the file (Article 253(17)); if they do not approve it, the reasons are written on the report (Regulation, Article 18(5)), and in the prosecution stage the same report is submitted to the court (Regulation, Article 25). The approval block is translated as a section of its own, and where there is no approval the translator adds none and does not present the document as approved. The outcome follows it: performance at once brings a decision of non-prosecution, while a deferred, instalment or continuing undertaking brings a deferral of public prosecution (Article 253(19)), and in the prosecution stage performance at once brings a dismissal and deferral a decision to stay (Article 254(2)). Where several people committed the offence, only the person who settled benefits from it (Article 255), so a report drawn up for one suspect is not widened in translation. Acte Tercüme translates Turkish criminal mediation reports and settlement documents into English.