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Criminal Law · Antalya, Turkey

Antalya Criminal Lawyer for Foreigners

Defence for foreign nationals under investigation in Turkey, and case building for foreigners who have been assaulted, robbed or wrongly accused here.

A Turkish criminal file moves faster than most foreigners expect. Police custody is capped at 24 hours before you must be taken to a prosecutor, and a judge can impose a ban on leaving the country in the same week. Turkish Penal Code No. 5237 applies to you from the moment you are on Turkish soil, whatever passport you hold. We act on both sides of the file, for the accused and for the injured party, at the Antalya Courthouse and before courts across Turkey.

Talk to an Antalya Criminal Lawyer: +90 530 936 94 64 Book a Legal Consultation
Antalya Criminal Lawyer Ahmet Kaymaz
English-speaking from the first statement
The statement you give at the police station is the document the whole case is built on. We are there for it, in a language you actually speak, before it is signed.
Defence files and victim files
We defend foreigners facing charges, and we join foreign victims to the prosecution as an intervenor so they have a voice in the courtroom and a right to appeal.
We can act while you are abroad
A power of attorney lets us attend hearings, challenge a travel ban and follow the file without you returning to Turkey.
01

Can a foreigner defend a criminal case in Turkey or bring one?

Quick answer

Yes. A criminal case in Turkey is defensible, and a crime committed against you is prosecutable. Turkish Penal Code No. 5237 applies to foreigners exactly as it does to citizens. Investigations usually run two to eight months and trials eight to eighteen. Cost is driven by the charge, whether you are detained, and how many hearings the file needs.

On This Page
02 Is This You? → 03 What Turkish Law Actually Says → 04 How a Criminal Case Actually Runs → 05 What It Costs → 06 Case Outcomes for Foreign Clients → 07 Frequently Asked Questions →
02

Is This You?

Turkish criminal law applies to you the moment you land

Article 8 of the Turkish Penal Code No. 5237 is short and blunt: offences committed in Turkey are tried under Turkish law. Your embassy can confirm you are detained and pass messages to your family. It cannot get the file dropped, cannot lift a travel ban, and cannot represent you in court.

Most foreigners contact us too late, after the statement is signed, or after a prosecutor has already closed the file.

What changes once a lawyer is in the file:

  • ✓ You find out what you are actually accused of, the offence and the article number, not the police officer's summary
  • ✓ Your statement is given once, correctly, with counsel present and a real interpreter, instead of being corrected for two years afterwards
  • ✓ A travel ban is challenged as a separate decision, so you can go home while the trial continues without you
  • ✓ As a victim, you are joined to the case as an intervenor, which is the only way to see the file, question witnesses and appeal a weak sentence

Situations we hear every week in Antalya

  • "Police took my statement at Antalya Airport and told me I cannot leave the country. My flight was three hours ago."
  • "My son was detained in Alanya over a package delivered to his flat and nobody will tell me what he is charged with."
  • "I was beaten outside a bar in Konyaaltı. The hospital gave me a report and the police wrote it down as a scuffle."
  • "My Turkish bank account was frozen because someone I sold crypto to turned out to be under investigation."
  • "A court paper in Turkish arrived at my old rental address in Lara, months after I flew home. I cannot read it."
  • "My ex-partner keeps turning up at my building and site security says it is not their problem."
03

What Turkish Law Actually Says

Four instruments decide almost every criminal matter involving a foreigner in Turkey. Each is published in full on the government's official legislation portal, mevzuat.gov.tr.
§
What you are accused of

Turkish Penal Code No. 5237

Defines every offence and its sentence range. Article 8 makes it apply to anyone on Turkish territory. The articles foreigners meet most often are 86 (intentional injury), 141 and 142 (theft, with 142 covering aggravated forms), 157 and 158 (fraud), and 188 and 191 (drug trafficking versus personal use, which carry very different consequences). Article 66 sets the limitation periods after which a case can no longer be brought.
Read Penal Code No. 5237 on mevzuat.gov.tr
⚖
How the case is run

Criminal Procedure Code No. 5271

The rulebook for custody, detention and trial. Article 91 caps police custody at 24 hours plus up to 12 hours' transport. Article 100 sets when a judge may order pre-trial detention. Article 109 allows judicial control instead, including the ban on leaving Turkey. Article 150 makes defence counsel mandatory where the offence carries five years or more, and Article 202 guarantees a free interpreter.
Read Procedure Code No. 5271 on mevzuat.gov.tr
◆
If the crime was committed against you

Victim Rights Under Articles 234 and 237

Article 234 lists what an injured party may demand during the investigation: to be informed, to submit evidence, to have counsel. Article 237 lets you join the prosecution as an intervenor, which is the step that gives you access to the file and the right to appeal. Article 173 gives you two weeks to object when a prosecutor decides not to prosecute.
Read the victim provisions on mevzuat.gov.tr
04

How a Criminal Case Actually Runs

Two different tracks, depending on which side of the file you are on. Timings below are what we typically see in Antalya courts.
If a case has been opened against you

The defence timeline, from custody to verdict

1
Custody or summons
Detention is capped at 24 hours under Article 91, plus travel time. Or a summons arrives by post. Call a lawyer before you say anything. What we need: your passport details and where you are being held.
2
Your statement
Given to police or directly to the prosecutor, with counsel and an interpreter. This document is quoted back at you for the next two years, so it is worth waiting for a lawyer to arrive.
3
Detention or judicial control
A judge decides between release, pre-trial detention, or judicial control under Article 109; signature duty, bail, or a ban on leaving Turkey. Objections go to the Criminal Judgeship of Peace within two weeks.
4
Investigation
Two to eight months. This is where files stall: forensic and expert reports, digital examination of phones, and translation of foreign documents. Access to the file can be restricted by a confidentiality order.
5
Indictment or closure
The prosecutor either issues an indictment or closes the file with a non-prosecution decision. The court then has fifteen days to accept or reject the indictment before a trial can start.
6
Hearings
Typically six to ten weeks apart, eight to eighteen months in total. Your presence is needed for your defence statement; video link through the SEGBİS system is accepted in many courts. What we need: a notarised power of attorney.
7
Verdict
Acquittal, a sentence, or deferral of the announcement of the judgment for sentences of two years or less, which leaves no criminal record if the five-year supervision period passes cleanly.
8
Appeal
Two weeks from pronouncement to appeal to the Regional Court of Appeal. Miss it and the judgment is final. Appeals commonly add six to eight months.
If a crime was committed against you

The victim timeline, from complaint to conviction

1
Preserve the evidence first
Go to a state hospital the same day for a forensic report. Ask the prosecutor to secure CCTV immediately, most private systems in Antalya overwrite within seven to thirty days, and that footage is gone for good.
2
File the complaint
Directly at the Chief Public Prosecutor's Office. There is no filing fee. For complaint-dependent offences the six-month clock in Article 73 has already started.
3
Join the case as an intervenor
The step most foreign victims never hear about. Without it you are a witness in your own case: no access to the file, no right to appeal a sentence you consider too light.
4
Investigation and charging decision
Where victim files stall: the offender's address is unknown, the forensic report grades the injury as minor, or the file sits waiting for phone records. Chasing the prosecutor's office in person moves things.
5
If the file is closed
Two weeks from notification to object to the Criminal Judgeship of Peace under Article 173. This is a written argument on the evidence, not a form.
6
Trial and compensation
A criminal court convicts and sentences but does not award you damages. The conviction then becomes the evidence for a separate compensation claim in the civil courts, which is usually far easier to win.
05

What It Costs

Criminal proceedings in Turkey are cheaper to start than most foreigners assume, filing a complaint costs nothing. What follows is where the money actually goes, and how our own legal service fee is built.
Costs the state does not charge you
Filing a criminal complaint
No fee
Court interpreter
Free (Criminal Procedure Code No. 5271, Art. 324/5)
Mandatory defence counsel
State-paid (Criminal Procedure Code No. 5271, Art. 150)
Official costs and who ends up bearing them
Notarised power of attorney
Notaries Act tariff
Sworn translation and apostille
Per page, by language
Expert and forensic reports
Charged to the defendant on conviction, otherwise borne by the Treasury
How our fee is structured
Investigation stage
Its own fixed fee
Trial stage
A separate fixed fee
Hourly billing
We do not use it, so the figure you are given is the figure
How the figure is set
Content and scope of the file, against the bar minimum
What moves the total, ranked by impact
1. Whether you are detained
Largest single factor
2. The offence charged
Drives the court and length
3. Number of hearings
Moderate, compounding
Criminal defence is priced as a fixed fee per stage, one for the investigation and one for the trial, because unlike a debt or property dispute there is no sum in issue to take a percentage of. Taking a percentage of what a client recovers only makes sense where money is actually being recovered, so that arrangement belongs to a separate compensation claim, not to the defence itself. Every figure we quote is worked out from the content and scope of your file, with the minimum in the attorney fee tariff published by the Union of Turkish Bar Associations applied as the floor. Because nothing is billed by the hour, the number you agree at the start is the number you pay for that stage. A broader breakdown is in our guide on how much a lawyer costs in Turkey.
₺

No figure before we have read the file

Send us the summons, the custody record or the complaint reference. We tell you the offence, the article number, the realistic timeline and a fixed fee for the stage you are in, before you commit to anything.
Get a Fee Estimate
06

Case Outcomes for Foreign Clients

Three files, anonymised. Two defences and one prosecution we drove on behalf of a victim.
✈

Accused of theft at the airport, travel ban lifted, then acquitted

Our client was flying home. He stopped in a terminal shop, walked out still holding an item he had picked up, and was detained at the gate on a theft allegation under Article 141. He missed his flight, was taken into custody, and released under judicial control with a ban on leaving Turkey, stranded in a country he had been about to leave. He came to us only at that stage, with the ban already in force. We obtained the terminal CCTV, put his boarding pass for a flight departing within the hour in front of the court, and argued that a man walking openly towards passport control had made no attempt to conceal anything. The travel ban was lifted and he flew home. We continued the file in his absence under a power of attorney, and he was acquitted: the intent to permanently appropriate simply was not there.
⚖

Client beaten by a group of attackers convicted and sentenced to prison

Our client was attacked and beaten by several men. The incident was initially written up as an ordinary scuffle, which is how these files quietly die. We sent him for a proper forensic examination and secured a report establishing that his injuries could not be remedied by simple medical intervention, the finding that changes the sentencing bracket. We filed the criminal complaint, joined him to the proceedings as an intervenor under Article 237 so he could see the file and question witnesses, and pressed the aggravated form of intentional injury under Article 86/3-e, which applies where the assault is committed by more than one person acting together. The court convicted the attackers and imposed custodial sentences.
₿

Crypto trader named as a fraud suspect after one peer-to-peer sale

A foreign trader sold cryptocurrency to a buyer he had never met. The buyer paid with money that turned out to be the proceeds of a fraud committed against a third party. The victim's complaint named the receiving account, our client's Turkish bank account was frozen, and he found himself listed as a suspect in a fraud investigation with no idea why. We reconstructed the transaction from exchange records and timestamps and showed the prosecutor the two facts that decided it: one single transaction, and zero contact of any kind with the actual scammer. He had sold an asset at market rate to an anonymous counterparty, exactly as the platform is designed to work.
From Our Legal Guides

Criminal Law Guides for Foreigners in Turkey by Antalya Criminal Lawyer

Defence
How Criminal Cases for Foreigners Are Navigated in Antalya
Read the guide
Victims
How Criminal Cases for Foreign Victims Are Handled in Antalya
Read the guide
Drug Offences
Drug Charges in Turkey: Four Facts Foreigners Must Know
Read the guide
Case Study
Defending a Foreign Crypto Trader Falsely Tied to Fraud Money
Read the case study
Travel Bans
How to Lift a Ban on Leaving Turkey
Read the guide
Frozen Accounts
Why Your Turkish Bank Account Is Blocked and How to Unfreeze It
Read the guide
◈
Not Sure Whether You Are a Suspect or a Witness?

Book a Criminal Case Review

Send us the paperwork you have; a summons, a custody record, a complaint number, or a court letter you cannot read. We tell you the offence, the article number and the deadline you are working against.
→
07

Frequently Asked Questions

The questions foreign clients ask us in the first phone call.
Can I leave Turkey while a criminal case is open against me?+
Usually yes, unless a judge has imposed a judicial control measure. Under Article 109 of Criminal Procedure Code No. 5271, a court can bar you from leaving the country as an alternative to pre-trial detention. That ban is a separate decision, it can be challenged, and it can be lifted while the case continues without you. Most people discover it at passport control, so check before you book a flight.
How long can the police hold me in Turkey without charge?+
Twenty-four hours, plus up to twelve hours for transport to the nearest courthouse. That limit is in Article 91 of Criminal Procedure Code No. 5271. For offences committed collectively, a prosecutor may extend custody in daily increments up to four days. You have the right to call a lawyer immediately, and the right to say nothing until one is sitting beside you.
Do I have to attend every hearing, or can my lawyer go for me?+
Your defence statement has to come from you, but after that a lawyer holding your notarised power of attorney can attend hearings in your place in most cases. Courts also take statements by video link through the SEGBİS system. Many of our clients follow an entire trial from abroad and never return to Turkey during the proceedings.
What does takipsizlik mean and can I object to it?+
Takipsizlik is a decision not to prosecute: the prosecutor closes your file without sending it to court. You have two weeks from notification to object to the Criminal Judgeship of Peace under Article 173 of Criminal Procedure Code No. 5271. Miss that window and the file is closed for good unless genuinely new evidence appears. This is the most common way foreign victims lose a case they should have won.
Is there a deadline to report a crime committed against me in Turkey?+
For complaint-dependent offences such as simple injury, threat and insult, you have six months from the day you learned of both the offence and the offender, under Article 73 of Turkish Penal Code No. 5237. Serious offences including robbery, drug crime and fraud are prosecuted automatically with no complaint deadline, but the limitation periods in Article 66 still apply.
Will a criminal conviction in Turkey affect my residence permit?+
It can. A conviction may trigger a deportation decision and a subsequent entry ban, which is why the criminal file and your immigration status have to be handled together rather than one after the other. The risk depends on the offence and the sentence imposed, so the defence strategy should account for the immigration consequence from the very first hearing.
Do I have to pay for a court interpreter in Turkey?+
No. Article 202 of Criminal Procedure Code No. 5271 requires the court to appoint an interpreter free of charge for any defendant who cannot follow the proceedings in Turkish, and the same applies when a victim gives evidence. You do pay for sworn translation of documents you submit yourself, such as foreign records, contracts or medical reports.
Antalya criminal lawyer legal services with a judge's gavel, law books and justice scales

Speak to an Antalya Criminal Lawyer Today

Whether a case has been opened against you or a crime was committed against you, the deadlines are already running. Tell us what you have and we will tell you what you are facing.
Talk to an Antalya Criminal Lawyer: +90 530 936 94 64 Book a Legal Consultation
Kaymaz Law Firm – Antalya law firm providing legal services in corporate, immigration, and criminal law.

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