In short
A witness summons is not the capacity of an accused; not attending and false testimony are separate risks.
A witness summons is not the capacity of an accused. Not attending and false testimony are separate risks.
The article on a suspect's statement stands apart.
The unit of the invitation is looked at in the papers of the Ankara Courthouse.
Related articles: a prosecutor's summons.
A first practical order
- Check the capacity on the invitation; a witness and a suspect should not be mixed.
- Do not speak by a guess on a subject you do not know.
- Do not belittle the risk of false testimony on a ground of "let it be a help".
Verify the genuineness of the summons paper and the file information
A witness summons may come within a proceeding of the prosecutor's office, the court, or the competent police. The file number, the identity of the person summoned, the date, the hour, the place, and the authority that made the summons should be on the document. If the notification was made only by telephone or by message, verification should be made through the official communication channel.
In attempts at fraud, money and account information may be asked by using the name of the courthouse or the police. A payment, a bank password, or a remote-access application is not requested by telephone from a person summoned for testimony. On a doubtful call, the institution's published number should be called, instead of the number the other side gave.
During the verification, the parties to the file or the short subject of the event may be asked; the witness should not, however, give a detailed statement on the telephone in an unprepared way. The purpose is to understand the source of the summons and the act expected of you. If a different capacity is found in the file while it is thought that you were summoned as a witness, the scope of the rights changes.
Do not mix the capacities of witness, suspect, and victim
A witness is a person thought to have observation or information about the event that is investigated or tried. A suspect is a person about whom there is a suspicion of an offence. A victim is a person alleged to have suffered directly from the offence. In the same event these capacities may not always start with definite borders; during the statement a subject that could give birth to the person's own responsibility may appear.
The witness has an obligation to tell the truth. In return, a person cannot be forced to make a statement that incriminates themselves. If a possibility of becoming a suspect becomes clear during the witness's account, the capacity and the rights of defence should be assessed again, instead of the act continuing in the same way. Guarantees such as the help of defence counsel, the right to remain silent, and learning the charge come into play for the suspect.
A victim may at the same time have seen the event; the procedural position of a victim's statement and of an impartial witness's account is not the same, however. That the capacity is written correctly on the record matters for this reason. How a prosecutor's investigation runs helps in understanding the basic roles in the investigation.
Plan attendance on the date of the summons, or an excuse, in advance
As a rule one needs to attend a summons in proper form. Density of work, or forgetting, is not counted as a valid excuse by itself. If there is a health problem, an obligatory act fixed in advance, being abroad, or another situation that makes transport impossible, it should be notified to the relevant unit as early as possible.
The following information may take place in the notice of an excuse:
- The file number and the date of the summons
- The reason for being unable to attend
- The document that supports the reason
- Reachable contact information
- A request for a new date or a suitable procedure
That an excuse was sent does not mean it was accepted. It should be confirmed that the relevant registry received it, and the decision that will be given should be followed. In a case of not attending without an excuse, results relating to compulsory bringing and to costs may come onto the agenda. That there is a right to refrain from testimony does not give an authority to ignore the summons either; the right should be used in proper form.
Learn the rights to refrain from testimony and not to answer
In criminal procedure there are guarantees of refraining, as regards certain relations of closeness, professional secrets, and questions that could incriminate the person or the relatives protected in the statute. The scope of these guarantees is not the same for every person and every question. The degree of kinship, the character of the profession, and the risk the question will give birth to are assessed with the current provisions.
The right to refrain from testimony completely, and the right to refrain from answering a particular question, should be separated. In the first, the person may choose not to testify for a statutory reason. In the second, while giving a statement on the other subjects, they may not answer a particular question that could incriminate themselves or a protected relative.
The existence of the right should be explained before the act, and the decision to use it should be entered on the record. Giving up under pressure, or giving a statement without the results being understood, is not sound. If there is doubt, a legal explanation may be asked before the statement starts.
Order your memory; do not memorise the account
Preparation for testimony is not building a common story with a lawyer or a relative of one of the parties. The date of the event, the place, and the parts seen directly may be ordered with a short chronology. If there is an e-mail, a message, a diary, or a photograph created at the time of the event, these may help remembering; the original record should be preserved.
In the preparation, the information may be separated into three groups:
- Events you saw or heard directly
- Information you learned later from someone else
- Details you do not remember, or are not sure of
This separation is critical for the reliability of the statement. A word heard from someone else should not be presented as personal observation. Saying "I do not know" or "I do not remember", if that is really the situation, is not a lack. Making a guess, and then defending the guess as certain information, creates a larger problem.
If you have an earlier written statement, you may read it again; if your present memory differs, however, the reason for the change needs to be explained, instead of hiding it. An ordinary mistake in human memory and testimony contrary to the truth knowingly are not the same.
Do not align the account with the other witnesses and the parties to the file
The witnesses speaking together about the event may make it uncertain who really remembered which detail. A direction by one side of "say that you saw this too" should not be accepted. If there is pressure by message, by call, or face to face, the records should be preserved and notified to the competent authority according to the character of the event.
It also matters that a benefit is offered to the witness in return for the content of the statement, or that it is said that harm will be done. In such a situation, instead of bargaining alone, safety needs to be secured and an official record created. Witness-protection measures are not applied automatically in every file; they are assessed according to the character of a serious risk.
Making a post on social media in the form "tomorrow I will explain everything in this file" may create a problem from the side of the witness's impartiality and safety. Giving the statement before the competent authority is healthier than joining a public debate before the hearing.
During the statement, tell only what you know, and its source
The witness may first be asked their identity and their relation with the parties. Then a free account of the event, and questions, come. If you did not understand the question, you may ask that it be repeated. If more than one event or date is mixed, this needs to be stated openly.
In the account, attention may be paid to the following principles:
- Separating the observation from the interpretation
- Stating a time that is not known for certain as approximate
- Not hiding the distance or the condition of sight
- Explaining from whom a word that was heard was heard
- Not hiding a closeness to, or a dispute with, one of the parties
- Not trying to complete a detail that was forgotten
The purpose of testimony is not to please one of the parties. A correct account of a set limit contributes both to the research of the material truth and to the witness's own legal safety.
Check the record and the hearing record
A witness statement taken at the prosecutor's office or the police is written on a record. Before the signature, the identity, the capacity, the notifications of rights, the questions, and the answers should be read from beginning to end. If your sentence was shortened in a way that would change the meaning, a correction may be asked. It is particularly important that information based on something heard is not written as direct observation.
At the court hearing the statement is taken orally and entered on the hearing record. If a contradiction with the earlier statement is seen, the reason may be asked. Instead of trying to hide the contradiction, the real reason, such as memory, the form of the question, or an error in the earlier record, needs to be explained.
If a risk of incriminating oneself has arisen as regards the witness's capacity, this situation should be stated at once. At a point where the suspect's rights come onto the agenda, the guarantees explained in before giving a statement gain importance separately.
Presenting a document, confidentiality, and a professional secret
The witness may have a document related to the event in hand. If the document will be presented, its source and how it was obtained should be explained. Information such as personal data taken from a workplace without permission, a health record, or a trade secret requires a special legal assessment. A thought of "it is useful to the file" does not make a method of obtaining contrary to law legitimate.
As regards secrets learned by reason of a profession, special rules such as refraining from testimony, or the consent of the owner of the secret, may come onto the agenda. In professional groups such as lawyers, physicians, and the like, the scope is assessed according to the character of the profession and of the information. It should not be assumed either that a general confidentiality contract is an automatic bar to every question in criminal procedure.
If the original of the document will be delivered, a detailed delivery record should be taken. The content of a digital document should not be changed, and the date and source information should be preserved. Which document illuminates which event should be stated clearly.
Costs, work, and the travel plan
A witness summons may give birth to transport from outside the city, accommodation, or a loss of work. There may be regulations in the legislation relating to meeting certain costs of the witness and the time they lost. The transport ticket, the accommodation invoice, and the summons document should be kept. On the day of the act, the method of application may be asked of the relevant registry.
Whether a witness who is in another city must necessarily come physically to Ankara is determined by the authority that made the summons. Being heard by video, or a letter of request, may be requested; it should not be assumed that it was accepted. The request should be presented before the date of the summons, and with its ground.
The information to be given to the employer may be limited to the necessary part of the summons paper and the document of attendance. Spreading all the details of the file to the work circle is not obligatory. Privacy and the obligation of attendance should be planned together.
How does the process continue after the statement in Ankara?
After the witness statement, a fresh summons, a confrontation, or being heard at the court hearing may come onto the agenda. Taking the first statement does not in every situation mean the duty of testimony has ended completely. The address and the contact information should be kept current.
After the court decision, the file may go to an examination on appeal or on further appeal. The witness may not be a party to these remedies of law; if there is a reversal or a retrial, however, it may be asked that they be heard again. For the general separation of the remedies of law, the content on the difference between an appeal and a further appeal may be looked at.
If pressure, a threat, or a sanction at the workplace is experienced after the testimony, the event should be put on a separate record and the legal routes assessed. That the witness is exposed to retaliation because they made a true statement cannot be accepted as ordinary.
A final assessment
When a witness summons arrives, verify the document, plan the date and the place, and notify an excuse in advance if there is one. Learn the scope of the guarantees of refraining and of not incriminating yourself. During the preparation, order your memory, but do not form a common account with the other persons. During the statement, express clearly only what you know, the source of the information, and the points you do not remember.
This text is for general information. The witness's capacity, the relation of closeness, the professional secret, and the character of the questions may give a different result in the concrete file. For the general procedure, criminal law, for the investigation stage a prosecutor's investigation, and on the risk of a change of capacity rights before a statement, may be examined.
The capacity is read from the summons document. A prison period is not added. The separation is built from the summons document. The Çankaya office does not choose the authority.
Conclusion
This article is for general information. The document, the period, and the procedure of the concrete event should be read separately; there is no promise of a result from memory.