Extradition and INTERPOL Red Notices

A red notice and an extradition request are separate instruments on separate timetables. One is a record held by an international organisation; the other is a proceeding before a Turkish court. They often arrive together, and the response to each is different.

Deleting a notice does not extinguish the underlying Turkish arrest warrant, and a refused extradition does not remove the notice. Where both are open, the order in which they are addressed is a strategic decision: material generated in the extradition proceeding may provide the strongest evidence for the notice challenge, and filing before that record exists may commit the argument too early. This is set out in more detail in Challenging INTERPOL Red Notices Originating from Türkiye.

Extradition itself is governed by Law No. 6706. The provisions that most often decide a matter are procedural rather than substantive — the thresholds, the limits on provisional detention, the periodic review of custody, and the fact that a court ruling extradition admissible is not the final step: execution requires the proposal of the Minister of Justice and the approval of the President. Extradition from Türkiye: procedure under Law No. 6706 covers the sequence and the time limits.

One provision deserves separate mention because it is frequently decisive and rarely anticipated. A foreign national in an extradition process cannot be deported without the opinion of the Central Authority, and cannot be deported to a state whose extradition request has been refused. Where immigration and criminal tracks run in parallel, this is often the operative rule.

The Turkish-law work

• Obtaining and reading the Turkish file: the arrest warrant, the investigation or indictment material, and what was communicated to INTERPOL

• Representation before the assize court, including detention and judicial control

• Advising on the Turkish-law position for use in a foreign extradition, asylum or immigration proceeding

• Preparing the Turkish-law component of a submission to the Commission for the Control of INTERPOL’s Files

• Advising on whether a return to Türkiye is procedurally viable, and on what terms

For foreign counsel. The first question is usually what the Turkish file actually contains, since the notice extract and the underlying record often differ. A short note of the procedural posture, the documents held and any fixed deadline is enough to begin.

For further information, see Insights.