More than fifty representatives of the Ministry of Justice of Türkiye and also judges and prosecutors in charge of handling and managing requests for international cooperation in criminal matters participated in two Training of Trainers activities organised in Ankara on 19-21 December 2022 and 9-11 January 2023. Organised with the support of the Ministry of Justice, the training aimed at establishing a pool of competent trainers to provide subsequent training to their peers throughout 2023.
The presentations given by the Council of Europe international and national experts focused on the most common international judicial cooperation measures: mutual legal assistance (MLA) and extradition. The first part of the trainings covered methodologies for the future trainers to expand their skills and raise their awareness of the processes of teaching these topics with a practical perspective. Important principles were then addressed such as dealing with concurrent jurisdiction cases, principles of criminal jurisdiction, drafting an MLA request, building and using networks, grounds for refusal, etc. The last day of training was dedicated to extradition, the different steps in the extradition process, grounds for refusal and practical exercises. Throughout the training, both international best practices and relevant Turkish law and practice were presented and discussed with the future trainers.
The participants actively contributed in the training sessions by sharing their practical experiences, including the challenges they face. The majority of participants reported that their knowledge on mutual legal assistance and extradition increased as a result of the training.
The project ‘Improving International Judicial Cooperation in Criminal Matters in Turkey’ is co-funded by the European Union and the Council of Europe and implemented by the Council of Europe.
