Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ on Friday warned prosecutors and judges about copy-paste indictments and rulings, saying in the long term it negatively affects trust in the judiciary.
“I would like to especially say that indictments and decisions have turned out to be a Manas legend. Thousands of pages of indictments, thousands of pages of decisions. That should not be happening, friends. Why does this happen? It is a result of computers. Copy, cut, paste, and it decreases efforts. The facts are lost in thousands of pages,” Bozdağ said while speaking to new prosecutors and judges at an appointment ceremony in Ankara.
“When you yourself write a reasoned decision instead of making a copy-paste ruling, that will increase faith in justice,” added Bozdağ.
Regarding purges in the judiciary since a failed coup attempt on July 15, Bozdağ said over 4,000 judges and prosecutors have been dismissed over links to the Gülen movement and that no remaining judges and prosecutors have been left uninvestigated.
According to the t24 news website, the government has dismissed 4,238 of Turkey’s 14,661 judges and prosecutors since July 15.
The government has been criticized for using the coup attempt as an excuse to purge judges and prosecutors and replace them with names close to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) İstanbul deputy Barış Yarkadaş recently said the AKP government had recruited for the position of judge 800 lawyers who had ties to the party.
Justice Minister Bozdağ on Aug. 17 announced a government plan to name 8,000 new judges and prosecutors by the end of 2016.
On Dec 8, 2016, the European Networks of Councils for the Judiciary (ENCJ) suspended the observer status of Turkey’s Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) and excluded it from participation in ENCJ activities for the mass suspension and dismissal of judges and prosecutors and the failure to comply with the European Standards for Councils for the Judiciary.