Should You Fly to Türkiye When a Relative Is in Custody — or do more from where you are?

Custody in a Turkish criminal file is measured in hours, not days. Under CMK 91/1 the custody period may not exceed twenty-four hours from the moment of apprehension, not counting the time strictly necessary to bring the person to the nearest judge or court, and that transport time may not itself exceed twelve hours. Where the offence was committed collectively, CMK 91/3 lets the prosecutor extend custody in writing, by no more than one day at a time, for up to three days.

So the first phase closes somewhere between one and four days after the arrest. Under CMK 91/7 a person who is not released is brought before the sulh ceza judge at the end of that period and questioned, with defence counsel present. That hearing decides remand or release, and it is usually over before a long-haul ticket has been paid for. The sequence is set out in the first twenty-four hours after an arrest.

Everything that can be influenced in that window happens inside rooms you cannot enter. Under CMK 154 a defence lawyer may meet the detained person in private at any stage, expressly without a power of attorney. One exception exists: under CMK 154/2 the right of a person in police custody to see counsel may be restricted for up to twenty-four hours, by a judge on the prosecutor's application, in terrorism, state-security and organised drug-trafficking files, and no statement may be taken during that period. A relative may not meet the detained person at any stage.

Remand under CMK 100/1 requires concrete evidence of strong suspicion and a separate ground for detention. The ground relied on against a foreign national is almost always the first in CMK 100/2-a: concrete facts raising the suspicion that the person will flee. That ground is answered with paper, and most of the paper is where you are.

• Proof of ties — tenancy agreement, employment contract, residence permit, school registration for children. These speak directly to CMK 100/2-a.
• Money for a security. Under CMK 109/3-f a judge may impose judicial control instead of remand on payment of a security, the amount and the instalments of which the judge fixes with regard to the suspect's financial position. International transfers take days to clear; beginning on day two rather than day nine changes what counsel can put to the court.
• A power of attorney, signed at a Turkish consulate near you or before a notary with an apostille. It is executed in your country, not in Türkiye.
• Medical records, where there is a condition the institution has to be told about.

None of this needs you in the same country as the file. It needs a courier, a sworn translator and a bank. What a court expects to see before it grants an alternative to remand is set out under remand, judicial control and release.

Visiting is a regulated regime, not a matter of arriving at the gate. Article 83/1 of Law no. 5275 allows a person held in a prison to be visited once a week, during working hours, for not less than half an hour and not more than one and a half hours, by the spouse, by blood and marriage relatives up to the third degree, and by a guardian or trustee — in each case on proof of the relationship. On admission the detained person also names up to three other people, and that list cannot be changed afterwards except in compelling circumstances.

Two consequences matter for a family abroad. The proof of relationship is a document problem: a birth or marriage certificate, translated, and in practice apostilled. It cannot be produced at the prison door. And an unmarried partner, a friend or an employer is not a relative for this purpose; they can visit only if they were among the three names given on admission, or with the written permission of the chief public prosecutor's office under Article 83/2. Whether the visit is open or closed — that is, through a screen — follows the Ministry's regulation under Article 83/3, not your request.

For someone on remand rather than serving a sentence these rules apply through Article 116/1, so far as they are compatible with remand — and one further filter sits on top. Under Article 114/2 the prosecutor during the investigation, and the judge or court at trial, may prohibit a remand prisoner from receiving visitors or restrict it in the interests of the case; Article 114/3 permits the same for correspondence and telephone calls.

Consular access runs on its own track: under Article 84/1, visit requests from the person's own diplomatic mission or consulate are met without delay.

Presence is worth a great deal on some days and very little on others.

The last row is the one families miss. A foreign national released by a criminal court is not always released into the street: where a deportation decision exists, the person can be taken from the courthouse to a removal centre with only what they are wearing. Somebody outside with a passport, a phone and cash changes that day materially.

If the case ends in a long sentence, the question stops being how often you can fly and becomes whether the sentence can be served nearer to you, which is dealt with under serving a sentence and transfer home. If you are earlier than that — still establishing where the person is and what a consulate will and will not do — the ground floor is set out on the page for families outside Türkiye, including the right CMK 91/5 gives a spouse and first- and second-degree blood relatives to apply to the sulh ceza judge for immediate release, decided on the papers within twenty-four hours.