Bar associations in Turkey have warned that a new video call application introduced by the Justice Ministry for inmates to consult with their lawyers risks undermining attorney-client confidentiality and the right to a fair trial, the Evrensel daily reported.
The application, called e-Avukat (e-Lawyer), allows inmates two weekly video calls with their lawyers, each limited to 30 minutes during weekday business hours. Although the ministry says prison staff may monitor the calls visually without listening, lawyers say the arrangement still fails to ensure confidentiality.
İzmir Bar Association General Secretary Zöhre Dalkıran said the system could not guarantee confidentiality and undermined the face-to-face contact essential for effective legal representation. She said the application was not a modernization measure but part of a broader effort by Justice Minister Akın Gürlek to distance lawyers from clients in custody.
Fırat Epözdemir, a board member of the İstanbul Bar Association, said the application could violate Articles 149 and 154 of the Turkish Code of Criminal Procedure (CMK), which guarantee inmates the right to meet privately with their lawyers. He said the authorities should first improve in-person access to lawyers before introducing any digital consultation system.
The launch of e-Avukat follows a recent proposal by Justice Minister Gürlek to restrict lawyers’ access to pretrial detainees, prompting condemnation from 80 bar associations across the country. The associations said any restriction on lawyer-client meetings would violate constitutional and international safeguards protecting the right to defense.
A pro-government daily also reported in February that the ministry was drafting legislation to impose new time, location and security restrictions on meetings between lawyers and detainees held on terrorism and organized crime charges.
Under the draft, lawyers would no longer be able to meet with detainees without prior scheduling, with prison administrations determining the time and place of visits. The proposal would also introduce an appointment system, along with additional identity verification and security checks.
Rights groups have been warning about the erosion of legal independence and the intimidation of lawyers representing dissidents, while lawyers and bar associations in Turkey have increasingly faced investigation and prosecution linked to their professional activities.
In the latest global Rule of Law Index released in October 2025 by the World Justice Project, Turkey was ranked 118th out of 143 countries, falling one place from the previous year.
