Önleyici Gözaltı ve Hürriyet Hakkı Çerçevesinde “Masumiyetin” Anlamı

No legal system prioritizes depriving a person of his/her liberty for the sake of preventing crime. However, unorthodox measures such as preventive detention is getting more and more popular amongst law-enforcement circles. Preventive detention is an arbitrary measure that doesn’t foresee a pending criminal investigation or trial upon its implementation. The essence of this measure relies on the fact that the target person hasn’t committed any crimes yet but likely to commit a certain and specific crime in the near future. This approach explicitly accepts the status of the detainee as “innocent”. The fundamental principle of “presumption of innocence” protects a person from being treated as “guilty” until a res judicata verdict has been rendered. Every person has the freedom of thought to contemplate committing a crime. The principle “cogitationis poenam nemo patitur” establishes that no person can be punished for thinking of committing a crime. Even if a person carries out dangerous prepatory acts of a crime, it must be accepted that this person eventually has the autonomy to change his/her mind about actually committing/attempting the particular crime in question. The badge of “innocence” is attached to a person starting from the first investigative procedure and follows him/her throughout the whole prosecution, including all phases of appeal. When a person is preventively deprived of his/her liberty there is no chance of …