What is Settlement and Settlement?
Conciliation in criminal law is the process in which the victim and the perpetrator of the crime communicate in order to resolve the dispute with the mediation of an impartial person in the criminal investigation and trial (CMK art. 253/1). Previously, both the title and the content of the law article whose title was ‘reconciliation’ were changed on 24.11.2016 with the law numbered 6763. According to the Criminal Procedure Code, conciliation expresses the agreement reached at the end of the communication process, while conciliation is used to express the process itself in which the parties participate.
Mediation negotiations and reconciliation agreement can be made both at the investigation stage and at the prosecution stage, if there are conditions (CMK art. 253, art. 254).
The out-of-court settlement method of private law disputes that are not related to any crime is called mediation (Mediation Law art.2).
What are the Settlement/Settlement Conditions?
According to article 253 of the Criminal Procedure Code; The ‘conditions of settlement’ are:
- • Crimes in which the victim is a natural person or a private law legal entity (company, foundation, association, etc.) of the injured party are within the scope of mediation. Regardless of the nature and punishment of the crime committed against public legal entities (Governorship, Municipality, Ministry, SSI, Tax Office, etc.), it is not possible to apply the provisions of conciliation (CMK art.253/1).
- • As a rule, crimes subject to investigation and prosecution are within the scope of mediation (CMK art. 253/1-a).
- • Except for crimes subject to complaint; In order to apply the provisions of conciliation to crimes regulated in special laws other than the Turkish Penal Code, there must be a clear provision in the relevant special law that mediation can be resorted to (CMK art.253/2).
- • Even if the investigation and prosecution depends on the complaint, reconciliation cannot be made in crimes against sexual immunity (sexual harassment crime, sexual assault crime, etc.).
- • If a crime within the scope of mediation is committed together with another crime that is not within the scope of mediation, the provisions of mediation do not apply (CMK art. 253/3).
- • If there is more than one perpetrator of the crime; whether or not there is a partnership relationship between them, but the person who reconciles benefits from the provisions of the agreement.
- • If there is more than one victim of the crime; suspect or accused must come to terms with all victims. If the suspect or accused is reconciled with all victims, they cannot benefit from the provisions of conciliation. For example; The alleged perpetrator of fraud against two persons must reconcile with both victims. If the perpetrator reconciles with only one of the victims, the mediation provisions regulated in CMK article 253 are not applied.
