II Council of Europe
| Author | Leo Zwaak,Yves Haeck |
| DOI | 10.1177/016934410402200106 |
| Date | 01 March 2004 |
| Published date | 01 March 2004 |
| Subject Matter | Part B: Human Rights News |
110
II COUNCIL OF EUROPE
LEO ZWAAK AND YVES HAECK
The case of Elc¸i and Others vs Turkey concerned the arrest and detention of 16
Turkish lawyers on suspicion of having acted as messengers between clients
of theirs who were in custody and members of the PKK (the Kurdish
Workers’ Party). The lawyers, while being held in detention for periods
ranging from 7 to 25 days at a provincial gendarmerie command, alleged
that the police officers interrogating them had made death threats and
insulted them; that they had been stripped and hosed down with freezing-
cold water, humiliated, slapped and terrified into signing any document put
before them. They were allegedly held in cold, damp cells and corridors and
forced to sleep on the floor, sometimes blindfolded. The applicants said that
they were only allowed to go to the toilet twice a day and that the only food
they received was a slice of bread a day. In their application, all the
applicants alleged a violation of Article 5 of the Convention and a number of
them said that they had been subjected to torture and treatment contrary to
Article 3 and complained under Article 8 and Article 1 of Protocol No. 1, of
the search and seizure operations (including the seizure of files of
applicants to the European Commission of Human Rights) performed on
their arrest. A number of the lawyers complained of a violation of former
Article 25 (currently Article 34) of the Convention.
On 13 November 2003, the European Court delivered its judgment. With
regard to the allegations under Article 3, the Court had particular regard to
the oral evidence presented by witnesses before the Delegates of the
Commission. It was not possible to establish the veracity of Mr Elc¸i’s
allegations of ill-treatment by the Cizre police on his initial detention.
However, the allegations of ill-treatment at the Diyarbakır provincial
gendarmerie command made by the applicants Tahir Elc¸i, Niyazi C¸ em,
Hu
¨sniye O
¨lmez and Meral Danis¸ Bes¸tas¸ were credible as a whole. Their
allegations that they had been insulted, assaulted, stripped naked and hosed
down with freezing cold water were consistent. They had stood by those
allegations before the Public Prosecutor, the Investigating Judge and the
Commission Delegates. The Court found to be credible and consistent the
applicants’ testimony about their dire conditions of detention – cold, dark
and damp, with inadequate bedding, food and sanitary facilities – as well as
the allegations made by S¸ inasi Tur, Sabahattin Acar, Mehmet Selim
Kurbanog˘lu, Mesut Bes¸tas¸ and Vedat Erten that they were insulted,
humiliated, slapped and terrified into signing any document that was put
before them. Furthermore, the Court accepted that, at least at crucial
moments, such as during interrogations and the confrontations with Mr
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