Turkey ranks 109 out of 126 countries in the Rule of Law Index for 2019 issued by the Global Justice Project, while it ranked 101 out of 113 countries in 2018.
Following the attempted coup in July 2016, more than 4,400 judges and prosecutors were arbitrarily dismissed from their jobs.
Many of the judges chosen to hear certain cases belong to the ruling Justice and Development Party, which of course affects the independence of the judiciary and renders these trials politicized.
The judges who presided Lawsuits against President Erdogan in the Supreme Criminal Court, their job ranks were reduced, as well as their names in the list prepared in advance by the Supreme Judicial Council to dismiss them after the coup attempt.
On May 12, 2015, the Supreme Judicial Council removed a judge and four prosecutors from the Syndicate who had participated in major corruption investigations from 17-25 December 2013, which resulted in the involvement of a number of government ministers and their children, and the accusations also affected Erdogan and members of his family .
The Turkish authorities are intimidating lawyers for not defending the accused, during the period from July 2016 to April 2019, 1,546 lawyers were prosecuted, on charges of joining a terrorist group.
Cases of physical assault against lawyers are part of the government's intimidation and terror campaigns against lawyers and human rights defenders. “Tojay Bey” is one of those lawyers who were assaulted in September 2016, and he is a human rights defender and head of the Prison Monitoring Committee of the Bar Association in “Adana Governorate”. He was severely beaten by 40 policemen, who attacked him with fists and kicks while he was tied behind his back, and insulted him.
Lawyer “Ibrahim Aran” was beaten and tied from the back. When the police raided his office, he asked them: Do you have permission to search? The answer was that 10 police officers beat him, forcing him to sleep on the ground, handcuffing him from behind and placing their shoes on his head.

“The majority of those who inform us that they have been subjected to torture or ill-treatment have not submitted complaints to the authorities for fear of reprisals against them and their families and because of their lack of confidence in the independence of the prosecution and the judiciary. Consequently, their willingness or ability to adequately investigate and adjudicate their allegations. Those who reported formal complaints claimed that no follow-up was done by the Public Prosecutor's Office.
Statement by Nils Melzer, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, following his visit to Turkey in December 2016