Provisions on Genetic Data under the Criminal Procedure Code Annulled by the Constitutional Court

With its decision dated 25 December 2025, File No. 2025/141, Decision No. 2025/274, published in the Official Gazette dated 18 March 2026 and numbered 33200, the Constitutional Court annulled certain provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code No. 5271 concerning the retention and destruction of genetic examination results, on the grounds that they did not provide sufficient safeguards for the protection of personal data. The decision indicates that the legal framework governing the processing and retention of genetic data obtained during criminal proceedings should be reassessed.

The key points are summarized below:

• Article 80(2) of the Criminal Procedure Code, which regulates the destruction of genetic data under certain circumstances, has been annulled on the grounds that it does not provide sufficient safeguards regarding the conditions under which such data will be retained and the duration of retention.
• The provision under Article 82 of the same Code, which allows the procedures and principles regarding the destruction of genetic data to be regulated by secondary legislation, has also been found unconstitutional due to the failure to set out fundamental principles at the statutory level.
• The Constitutional Court emphasized that genetic data constitutes special categories of personal data and that the rules governing the processing and retention of such data must be clear, precise, and foreseeable.
• The decision states that matters such as retention periods, destruction procedures, data subjects’ rights, and available remedies must be explicitly regulated at statutory level.
• It has been resolved that the annulment decision will enter into force nine months after its publication in the Official Gazette; during this period, the relevant legislation is expected to be amended in compliance with the Constitution.