A secret witness (or anonymous witness) is a witness which is granted anonymity in a trial by the juridical authority. The identity of the witness is not disclosed to the defendant and the general public except the secret witness agrees to it. It is a juridical procedure currently often used in Turkish law. Prominent examples are the case against Andrew Brunson and the

Ergenekon trials The Ergenekon trials were a series of high-profile trials which took place on 2008–2016 in Turkey in which 275 people, including military officers, journalists and opposition lawmakers, all alleged members of Ergenekon, a suspected secularist ...

. In several trials against politicians of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) secret witnesses are also used. Following the attempted coup d'état in 2016, secret witnesses were used in many trials.

Turkey

Evidence provided by the secret witness dubbed ''Garson'' was used in trials against 4000 Turkish police officers accused of being members of the

Gülen movement The Gülen movement ( tr, Gülen hareketi), referred to by its participants as Hizmet ("service") or Cemaat ("community") and since 2016 by the Government of Turkey as FETÖ ("Fethullahist Terrorist Organisation" or, more commonly, "Fethullah T ...

. In the Kobani trial, the former Mayor of Diyarbakır Gültan Kişanak is accused by secret witnesses of organizing the Kobanî protests supporting the Kurds during the

Siege of Kobanî The siege of Kobanî was launched by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant on 13 September 2014, in order to capture the Kobanî Canton and its main city of Kobanî (also known as Kobanê or Ayn al-Arab) in northern Syria, in the ''de facto'' ...

by the

Islamic State An Islamic state is a State (polity), state that has a form of government based on sharia, Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical Polity, polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a t ...

(IS).

Eren Erdem Eren Erdem (born 14 August 1986) is a Turkish writer and politician from the Republican People's Party (CHP), who has served as a Member of Parliament for İstanbul since 7 June 2015. Biography Eren Erdem was born in Fatih, İstanbul on 1 ...

of the

Republican People's Party The Republican People's Party ( tr, Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi, , acronymized as CHP ) is a Kemalist and social-democratic political party in Turkey which currently stands as the main opposition party. It is also the oldest political party ...

(CHP) was prosecuted for revealing the identity of a secret witness but found not guilty of the crime and his release was ordered in January 2019. However, the prosecution issued a new arrest warrant the day after the verdict alleging a flight risk and Erdem was sentenced to over 4 years imprisonment due to a testimony of a secret witness on 1 March 2019. The American pastor Andrew Brunson was prosecuted also on grounds of testimony of a secret witness accusing him of supporting the creation of a

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish languages *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern Kurdistan **Eastern Kurdistan **Northern Kurdistan **Western Kurdistan See also * Kurd (dis ...

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

state. Brunson was later released in 2018, following an alteration of the testimonies provided by three secret witnesses during the final day of the trial. During the

Ergenekon Ergenekon (sometimes spelled ''Ergeneqon'', mn, Эргүнэ хун, Ergüne khun) is a founding myth of Turkic and Mongolic peoples.

trials against members of the so-called Deep state in Turkey, deep state of Turkey,

Şemdin Sakık Şemdin Sakık (born Muş Province, Turkey 1959), nicknamed ''Semo'' or ''Parmaksiz Zeki'' (fingerless Zeki) for having lost a finger while firing a rocket, is a former commander of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)'s military forces. He is be ...

of the

Kurdistan Workers' Party The Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK is a Kurdish militant political organization and armed guerrilla movement, which historically operated throughout Kurdistan, but is now primarily based in the mountainous Kurdish-majority regions of south ...

(PKK) acted as one of over 40 secret witnesses, but during the trial he decided to reveal his identity. In Turkey the use of secret witnesses has been a target for criticism by the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) but also of

Nationalist Movement Party The Nationalist Movement Party (alternatively translated as Nationalist Action Party; tr, Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi, MHP) is a Turkish far-right and ultranationalist political party. The group is often described as neo-fascist, and has been ...

(MHP) of the

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...

, also condemned the use of secret witnesses in trials against mayors dismissed from public office in Turkey.

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom secret witnesses were used during the trial concerning the Murder of Charlene Ellis and Letisha Shakespeare. Other trials which potentially would have involved secret witnesses were suspended on grounds that the rights of the defendant were not guaranteed. Nevertheless, the use of secret witnesses is allowed according to British law,{{Cite web, title=Witness Anonymity (The Director's Guidance) {{! The Crown Prosecution Service, url=https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/witness-anonymity-directors-guidance, access-date=2020-12-14, website=www.cps.gov.uk but if their use in trial is granted by a court, the prosecution is obliged to provide as much information as possible to the defense.

References

Evidence law