Turkey’s Constitutional Court has annulled a criminal procedure law that allowed judges to authorize searches and the copying and seizing of suspects’ computers and digital records, ruling that the provision lacked safeguards for privacy and personal data, Turkish Minute reported.
The ruling concerns Article 134 of Turkey’s Code of Criminal Procedure, the main legal basis used by prosecutors and courts to examine computers, hard drives, phones and other digital records during criminal investigations.
The court did not rule that digital searches are unlawful in themselves but said the law failed to explain what authorities must do with personal data after it is copied or seized.
The decision, dated February 12 and published in the Official Gazette on Monday, will take effect on February 25, 2027, giving parliament nine months to pass a replacement law.
The case reached the Constitutional Court after the Bursa 1st Criminal Court of First Instance challenged the rule during a trial on smuggling charges.
Under the annulled provision, a judge could order the search of a suspect’s computer records when there was a strong suspicion based on evidence and when the evidence could not be obtained by other means.
The same article also allowed authorities to seize a device if they could not access it because of a password or hidden data.
The Constitutional Court said computers and digital devices can contain large amounts of personal data, including information about a person’s private life, communications, documents, photographs, location history and professional records.
The court said the law served a legitimate aim by helping authorities investigate crimes but failed to set rules on how long copied data could be stored, who could access it, when it should be deleted and how its use could be limited after a case is concluded.
Legal experts in Turkey interpreted the ruling as a warning that digital evidence rules must cover the full life cycle of data, from seizure and copying to storage, review, deletion and oversight.
They said the ruling does not immediately invalidate ongoing investigations, but it gives defense lawyers a new basis to challenge the handling of digital evidence in criminal cases.
Some lawyers also said the decision could affect future challenges in cases based on mass digital evidence, including cases involving ByLock, an encrypted messaging app Turkish courts have used as evidence in prosecutions of people accused of links to the faith-based Gülen movement.
The European Court of Human Rights has previously ruled against Turkey over its use of ByLock evidence in terrorism-related cases, saying defendants did not have a fair chance to challenge the reliability and use of digital data.
The Constitutional Court’s majority said the lack of rules on retention, deletion and limits on processing made the law disproportionate under constitutional protections for private life and personal data.
