Materials pertaining to the case filed by Şükran Aydın against the Republic of Turkey with the European Commission of Human Rights (application number 23178/94, later given case number 57/1996/676/866, referred to internally within the Kurdish Litigation Project as Case 74 and assigned to Françoise Hampson as lead) regarding her arrest, torture, and rape by members of the Turkish security forces between 29 June and 2 July 1993.
At the time of the events, Aydın was 17 years old and living with her family in Taşıt, Derik District, Mardin Province. According to Aydın, she was arrested in the village in the early hours of 29 June 1993 alongside her father, Seydo Aydın, and her sister-in-law, Farahdiba Akşın. The three were taken by village guards and gendarmes to the Derik gendarmerie headquarters. There, the applicant was blindfolded, beaten, stripped naked, placed in a tyre, and hosed with pressurised water. She was then taken to another room where she was raped by a member of the security forces. She and the other members of her family were released after three days, on or about 2 July 1993. On 8 July 1993, the three family members filed a complaint about their treatment with the Derik Public Prosecutor’s Office, and Şükran Aydın underwent three medical examinations in July and August 1993. The Government of Turkey denied that Aydın and her family members were ever taken into custody, called her allegations unsubstantiated, but nevertheless opened an investigation which later reported that there was no evidence to support the applicant’s complaints.
On 25 September 1997, the European Court of Human Rights dismissed the Government’s objections regarding the exhaustion of domestic remedies (18 votes to 3) and abuse of process (unanimously). The Court held that Şükran Aydın had been subjected to torture through being raped and otherwise ill-treated contrary to Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (14 votes to 7); that she had noted been afforded an effective remedy in respect to her complaint contrary to Article 13 (16 votes to 5); that no violation of Article 25 § 1 had been established (unanimously); and that it was not necessary to consider the remainder of the complaints. The Court held 18 votes to 3 that Turkey should pay the applicant £25,000 sterling in non-pecuniary damages, and 16 votes to 5 that Turkey should pay Şükran Aydın’s United Kingdom-based legal representatives £34,360 sterling less 19,145 French francs, and her Turkish representatives £3,000 sterling. The full judgment is available for viewing at https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/fre?i=001-58371.
Additional materials pertaining to this case are located at A44/43/6/11.
