Violation of confidentiality crimes in Turkish criminal code (TCC Article 285/1-3)

In Article 285 of the Turkish Criminal Code, there are three different types of crimes defined under the name of violation of confidentiality. Violation of the confidentiality of the investigation, violation of the confidentiality of the court decisions and the consequential actions taken within the investigation period that must be kept concealed from the parties of the investigation, and violation of the confidentiality of explanations and images within closed hearings or hearings that must be closed are defined respectively in the first, second and third paragraphs of this article. The violation of confidentiality crimes defined in the first and the second paragraphs of Article 285 of the Turkish Criminal Code needs supplementary analysis of notions such as the investigation period, investigational actions and the principle of confidentiality of the investigation which are all defined in the Law of Criminal Procedure. The legal values these crimes protect includes values protected by the rule of investigations to be carried out in respect to human rights and the confidentiality of the investigation. In this context, the principles of criminal procedure, protection of the suspect, presumption of innocence, the right against self-incrimination, the right of privacy and communications and the right to a fair trial, a right that contains all of these principles and rights within its roof, are subjects of discussion. In the second paragraph of the said article we could see that the action of violation of the confidentiality of the decisions and the consequential actions taken within the investigation period that must be kept concealed from the parties of the investigation has been criminalized. In this context, the subject of the crimes will be analysed under the scope of the Law of Criminal Procedure and the court decisions that are regarded as violation of confidentiality that are taken during the investigation period and the actions taken in accord with these court decisions will be identi-fied. The subject of the crime defined in the third paragraph of article 285 of the Turkish Criminal Code which is violation of the confidentiality of explanations and images within closed hearings are the exception of the rule of public hearing. The conditions of closed hearings set forth in codes of criminal procedure, the results of having a hearing closed to the public, people with the right to a closed hearing and the violation of privacy of the images and explanations within the hearing will be analysed in terms of criminal law. Contrariety to the confidentiality decision taken to protect the witness will be separately discussed. In the said article, circumstances in order for the violation of confidentiality to happen that needs to be open and circumstances that doesn't need to be open are listed one by one. Within this scope, actions that result to violation of confidentiality and downright violation of confidentiality are being defined. Also, the features these actions needs in order to be a crime are being discussed. The legal status of the open-ness of the action will be examined. The appearance of violation of confidentiality, the changes made to the article defining the crime, the transformation of the values protected in the crimes against the court chapter of the code which the article is in, the comparison of these crimes with other crimes in the Turkish Criminal Code and within the scope of comparative law are some of the subjects discussed in the first chapter. In the second chapter you will find a piece on violation of the confidentiality of the investigation. In the third chapter, the violation of confidentiality of explanations and images in a closed hear-ing are being inspected within the scope of the protected legal value, material ele-ments, illegality, moral elements, attempt, accomplicity, session, qualified status, procedure and sanctions. Keywords: Violation of confidentiality, confidentiality of the investigation, violation of the confidentiality of the investigation, violation of confidentiality of closed hearings, Turkish Criminal Code.