Minister Tunç: Judicial Records Now Available in 43 Languages
Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç announced that 43 languages are now supported for issuing judicial records thanks to the New Judicial Record Information System, which enables certificates to be provided electronically. “Since January 1, 366,622 individuals have benefited from the foreign language criminal record service. The most requested language for these records was English,” Tunç stated.
Justice Minister Tunç emphasized that judicial records can now be easily obtained electronically, making legal and administrative processes safer and faster. He noted that these records can be accessed through the judicial record units at public prosecutors’ offices, foreign missions, and e-Government in 43 different languages, marking a significant advancement. He added that citizens can carry out international transactions more quickly and comfortably thanks to this service, with ongoing efforts to include new languages. Initially, criminal records could be obtained in English, French, German, and Italian, but have now been expanded to include Spanish, Dutch, Danish, and Portuguese.
NEW JUDICIAL RECORD INFORMATION SYSTEM
The provision of judicial records electronically began in 2022, allowing individuals to officially declare their criminal status in legal and administrative processes. The New Judicial Record Information System, developed by the Ministry of Justice and TÜRKSAT engineers with national software, eliminated the need for physical preparation of judicial records and enabled providing them electronically in multiple languages.
Initially offering translations in 19 foreign languages such as Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Slovak, Macedonian, Russian, Romanian, Latvian, Bulgarian, Albanian, and Arabic, the New Judicial Record Information System added 9 more languages in 2022, including Bosnian, Croatian, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Mongolian, Uzbek, Serbian, Tajik, and Turkmen, increasing the total number of supported languages to 28. By May last year, 12 more languages were incorporated, including Montenegrin, Polish, Hungarian, Swedish, Finnish, Czech, Greek, Hindi, Bengali, Hebrew, Malay, and Bahasa Indonesia, bringing the total to 40. In January of this year, Dari, Persian, and Urdu were added, making the total 43 languages for judicial records.
ENGLISH MOST REQUESTED
From January 1 to June 24, 2024, a total of 366,622 judicial records were issued in 43 languages. English was the most requested language with 174,332 records issued, followed by German with 44,067, and French with 16,504.
JUDICIAL RECORD AMENDMENT REQUESTS
Additionally, since August 18, 2022, requests for the deletion and correction of judicial records have been accepted online via the e-Government portal. To date, 1,293,129 citizen requests have been received, with 1,253,340 of those requests already resolved.