Situation during the visit A/HRC/33/51/Add.1 Measures taken/current situation Level of implementation and observations (to be completed by the WGEID) public prosecutor, and responsible for executing all orders without any delay. Taking suspected individuals into custody (detention) is by principle up to public prosecutor's decision and police officers have been exceptionally permitted to detain suspects only for certain crimes and under strictly limited conditions, as is stated in the article 91 of the CCP. identify disappeared person or his/her remains, including their return to the relatives, with due respect for cultural customs. Truth Justice Memory Center - the Human Rights Joint Platform – Human Rights Watch Turkey applies a statute of limitation period of 20 years for crimes under which enforced disappearances are usually investigated and prosecuted. Considering the lengthy time elapsed from the date of crimes, most of the investigations have high likely been or are about to be closed by the decisions of non-prosecutions based on the expiry of statute of limitation period. Only a few of the enforced disappearances of the 1990s have been able to be prosecuted43. JWF - IAHRA Geneva Two families in Turkey informed that the government did not criminally prosecute anyone for the act of enforced disappearance of their loved ones. Thirteen out of fourteen family members outside Turkey informed that the Government of Turkey or other governments did not criminally prosecute anyone for the enforced disappearance of their loved ones. In one case, an investigation was initiated but was discontinued following political pressure. Certainly, the investigation stopped short of criminally prosecuting anyone for the enforced disappearance, acting on behalf of the government or any non-state actor. LLG – TGRLSP 43 After the attempted coup, it is further disconcerting that the Turkish authorities are reported to have overlooked that the fate and the whereabouts of many individuals had been unknown for months before they appeared in custody. Allegations that they had been routinely tortured in secret detention sites with the aim of extracting confessions about their alleged or imputed affiliation with the Hizmet/Gulen movement should be investigated promptly and thoroughly. The rights of victims and their families to truth, justice and reparations must be upheld at all times. The unimpeded exercise of these rights is a litmus test for the rule of law and democracy in Turkey. The Working Group does not differentiate between direct and indirect victims, but rather considers that both the disappeared person and those who have suffered harm as a A total of 14 trials have been opened for the disappearance of 81 persons. Three of them concerning the disappearance of three persons were commenced and concluded during the 1990s, i.e. trial of Mehmet Şerif Avşar, the trial of Şeyhmuz Yavuz, and the trial of Abdullah Canan. While two of these three trials resulted in the conviction of low-level members of security forces, who received nominal, low sentences, in the other trial, the defendants were acquitted. In 2009-2014, many years after the date of crimes, the remaining 11 trials concerning the disappearance of 79 persons were commenced days before the expiry of statute of limitation periods (These trials do not only concern the enforced disappearances, but also include the extra-judicial killings of the 1990s); two of them later were joined, i.e, The trial of Main JİTEM (JITEM is the Turkish abbreviation for the Gendarmerie Intelligence and Counter-Terrorism) was joined with the trial on the extra-judicial killing of Musa Anter and later on with the trial on the disappearance of Ayten Öztürk. A/HRC/45/13/Add.4 36 Recommendations A/HRC/33/51/Add.1