Note · Law no. 6706 m.17 · m.18
Türkiye Asks Whether You Consent to Extradition — what saying yes actually gives up
Consenting under Article 17 of Law no. 6706 means being extradited without the ordinary procedure being applied. What that removes is the Article 18 examination of the extradition conditions, the court's power to demand a fuller file from the requesting state, and cassation review by the Yargıtay within three months. What it does not remove is the Central Authority's approval, the presidential stage under Article 19, or any Turkish case still open against you.
The question is put before you have the file
The first time the phrase reaches you, it is usually not in the extradition case at all. Article 14/3 of Law no. 6706 requires a person arrested on a foreign state's request for provisional arrest to be brought before a sulh ceza judge within twenty-four hours at the latest, and requires that judge, before ruling on provisional detention, to inform the person of the possibility of extradition by consent and of its legal consequences. You have been in custody a day, you have not seen the request, and the option has already been put in front of you.
That hearing is not where consent is given. Under Article 17/2 the question belongs to the ağır ceza court that decides the request: it explains the rights set out in the Code of Criminal Procedure together with the nature and legal consequences of extradition by consent, and then asks whether you accept that procedure. There is time between the two moments, and that time is what the answer should be made in.
The arrest often comes before the request exists. Under Article 14/6, where the requesting state does not send the extradition documents within the applicable period, the provisional detention, or the judicial control ordered in its place under Article 14/5, is lifted. Article 14/4 fixes that period by the relevant treaty, and on reciprocity alone a person may be held provisionally for at most forty days. A notice and an extradition request are separate instruments, and the first can run out without the second arriving.
What Article 17 removes
Article 17/1 is short: a person who consents may be extradited to the requesting state without the ordinary extradition procedure being applied. To see what that costs, read Article 18, which is the ordinary procedure.
- Article 18/1 — where the person does not accept the consent procedure, the court examines the extradition conditions under this Law and the international agreements to which Türkiye is party before ruling on admissibility.
- Article 18/2 — where the documents sent by the requesting state are not found sufficient, the court may require further information and documents to be sent within an appropriate period.
- Article 18/4 — the decision is open to temyiz, cassation before the Yargıtay, which concludes such applications within three months.
Article 17/3 keeps a decision but not that structure. On your acceptance the court rules on whether the request is admissible under the Law and the treaties; the remedy against that ruling is itiraz, an objection, rather than cassation; and the papers go to the Central Authority once it becomes final. No examination of the extradition conditions is prescribed, and no power to demand a fuller file appears. Consent is not a shorter version of the same hearing. It is a different one.
The difference matters because Article 11 lists the grounds on which a request is not accepted: Turkish citizenship, subject to obligations arising from membership of the International Criminal Court; strong grounds to suspect investigation, prosecution or punishment on account of race, ethnic origin, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, or exposure to torture or ill-treatment; an act that is an offence of opinion, a political offence, a purely military offence, an offence against the Turkish State or committed to its detriment, an offence within Türkiye's own jurisdiction, or one that is time-barred or amnestied; a prior acquittal or conviction in Türkiye for the same act; and offences requiring the death penalty or a penalty incompatible with human dignity.
Article 11/4 adds a ground that is discretionary rather than mandatory. Where personal circumstances — being under eighteen at the date of the request, long presence in Türkiye, being married — mean that extradition would harm the person or the family disproportionately to the gravity of the act, the request may be refused. Grounds of that kind are made out with documents, and documents need a hearing at which they can be produced.
What consent does not deliver
Consent is often accepted because it appears to make something move. Read against the rest of the chapter, it moves less than people expect.
The court's decision is not the end of it. Article 17/4 provides that the execution of an extradition decision given under the consent procedure is subject to the approval of the Central Authority. Article 19/1 keeps the stage that follows admissibility in place: execution depends on the opinion of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and the Interior, the proposal of the Minister of Justice and the approval of the President. Article 19/2 requires the Central Authority to notify both the requesting state and the person sought that the request has been accepted or refused.
Consent does not close a Turkish file. Under Article 20/3 surrender may be postponed by the Central Authority where the person is under criminal investigation or prosecution in Türkiye for another offence, where there is a prison sentence here that must be executed, or where the person is not in a condition to travel. Agreeing to leave for one case does not dispose of another.
Detention is reviewed the same way either way. Article 16/2 requires the ağır ceza court to review detention at intervals of no more than thirty days until surrender, and Article 16/4 caps total detention at the period of execution of the sentence the person could receive, or has been sentenced to, for the offence underlying the request.
One protection is not written as depending on the route. Article 10/4 provides that where extradition takes place, the person may only be tried for, or have executed against them, the offences on which the extradition decision was based. Its practical weight therefore depends on what that decision covers, which is a reason to establish the scope of the request before answering rather than after. If you are asked to sign anything beyond the record of your answer, that is a separate question, and it should be read to you in a language you understand.
The dates, and when consent is the reasonable answer
| Point in time | What the statute provides | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Within 24 hours of arrest | Brought before a sulh ceza judge, who informs you of the possibility of consent extradition and its legal consequences before ruling on provisional detention | art. 14/3 |
| Up to 40 days | Maximum provisional detention where the matter proceeds on reciprocity; otherwise the period set by the relevant treaty | art. 14/4 |
| On expiry of that period | Provisional detention or judicial control is lifted where the extradition documents have not been sent | art. 14/6 |
| Every 30 days at most | Detention reviewed by the ağır ceza court until surrender | art. 16/2 |
| Within 3 months | The Yargıtay concludes a cassation application — ordinary procedure only | art. 18/4 |
| Within 1 year | Where no extradition decision under Article 19 follows the final admissibility decision within a year, the protective measures are lifted | art. 16/3 |
| 30 days after the agreed date | Where the requesting state does not collect the person without good reason, the protective measures are lifted | art. 20/2 |
There are files in which consent is the reasonable answer. Where none of the Article 11 grounds is genuinely present, where the case is one you intend to contest in the requesting state rather than here, and where the alternative is many months counted out in thirty-day reviews, the shorter route takes time out of a period that serves nobody. What makes that defensible is that it was chosen against the file rather than instead of reading it.
Keep two consents apart. Extradition sends you to a state that wants to prosecute you or to execute a sentence on you. Transfer as a sentenced person is a different instrument: under Article 32 it requires a final conviction, nationality of or strong social ties with the receiving state, the act being an offence there, at least six months of imprisonment left to serve unless the central authorities decide otherwise, and no other investigation or prosecution in Türkiye. There, consent is a condition of something you are asking for, not a waiver of something you have.
The person being asked the question is also rarely the person holding the file. Relatives abroad can instruct counsel, obtain the request documents and assemble the Article 11/4 personal circumstances while the person in custody cannot. If the question has been put to you or to someone you are trying to help, the thresholds, the grounds of refusal and the court that decides them are set out on the extradition page.
Questions people ask at this point
The judge asked me about it at the detention hearing. Did I have to answer there?
If I consent, will I be handed over more quickly?
Can I change my mind after saying yes?
Turkish terms on this page5 terms
The file is written in Turkish. These are the words you will see in it, with the provision behind each.
- sulh ceza hâkimliği — criminal judgeship of peace
- The judge who takes the decisions a judge must take during the investigation — remand, judicial control, search orders — and who hears objections to them (Law no. 5235, art. 10).
- ağır ceza mahkemesi — heavy penal court
- The trial court for the listed serious offences and for any offence carrying more than ten years' imprisonment, life or aggravated life (Law no. 5235, art. 12).
- itiraz — objection
- The remedy against a judge's or court's decision — a remand order, for example. Unless the law provides otherwise it is made within two weeks of learning of the decision, to the authority that gave it (CMK 268/1).
- temyiz — appeal to the Court of Cassation
- The appeal on points of law against a regional court of appeal decision, to the Yargıtay, within two weeks of service of the reasoned judgment (CMK 291/1).
- Yargıtay — Court of Cassation
- The supreme court for criminal and civil matters. It decides temyiz appeals and its settled case-law guides the lower courts.
Where this leads
Reach the duty desk
Tell us where the person is and what they have been told. An enquiry commits you to nothing. If it is urgent, message or call rather than write.