Turkey holds 14,657 e-hearings to date: Justice minister

By Emin Avundukluoglu

ANKARA (AA) – Turkey has held 14,657 electronic court hearings in 30 provinces of the country, the country's justice minister said on Thursday.

"The pilot scheme of e-hearings is going well. We aim to do it in a way that increases satisfaction. It is conducted in 30 provinces. As of today, it is conducted in 738 courts. Its technical safety is also important, and we do this work after certain processes. Until today, 14,675 hearings have been held," Abdulhamit Gul told lawmakers in the Digital Channels Committee of the Turkish parliament.

In September, Turkey launched a pilot scheme for its electronic hearing system in the new judicial year.

The process will allow lawyers to attend the hearing via videoconference on Turkey’s National Judiciary Informatics System (UYAP).

Gul said that approximately 800 million documents are produced annually at UYAP.

"An average of 3.6 million documents are daily added to the system, and an average of 13 million documents are read by users daily," he said.