Sub-sub-series 31 - İsmail Ertak

18 files

Materials pertaining to the case filed by İsmail Ertak on 1 October 1992 against the Republic of Turkey with the European Commission of Human Rights (application number 20764/92, referred to internally within the Kurdish Litigation Project as Case 61 and assigned to Kevin Boyle as lead) regarding the disappearance of his son Mehmet Ertak after being taken into police custody on 20 August 1992. Supplementary materials pertaining to this case are located at A44/43/6/38.
Following incidents in Şırnak between 18 and 20 August 1992, several people were taken into police custody at the Şırnak gendarmerie command and security police headquarters on 21 August. At the time of the events, Mehmet Ertak was working at a coal mine. At Bakımevi checkpoint, police officers in blue uniforms stopped the taxi in which Mehmet was travelling home from work together with three other people, namely Abdulmenaf Kabul, Süleyman Ertak, and Yusuf Ertak. The police officers took their identity papers and one of them asked which one was Mehmet Ertak. Mehmet Ertak identified himself and the officers took him away. On 24 August 1992, Abdullah Ertur, an acquaintance who had been taken into police custody on 21 August 1992 and released on 23 August 1992, told the applicant that he had shared a cell with Mehmet Ertak for a whole day and night.
Abdurrahim Demir, a lawyer taken into police custody on 22 August 1992 and released on 15 September 1992, told the applicant that he had spent five or six days in the same room as Mehmet Ertak. He also stated that Mehmet had been severely tortured; in particular, on the last occasion he had remained in the “torture room” for about fifteen hours and, on being brought back to his cell, had been unconscious, displaying no signs of life. A few minutes later he had been dragged out of the cell by the legs. Another person, Ahmet Kaplan, who had likewise been released on 15 September 1992, told the applicant that he had seen his son while in custody. Three further people detained at police headquarters at the same time as Mehmet informed İsmail Ertak, when he went to visit them at Şırnak Prison, that they had seen Mehmet during that time.
İsmail Ertak requested the Şırnak provincial governor to explain why his son had not been released and to inform him of his whereabouts. He was accompanied by local councillors Abdullah Sakın and Ömer Yardımcı, and by another of his sons, Hamit Ertak. The provincial governor, Mustafa Malay, interviewed an eyewitness, Abdullah Ertur, who confirmed that he had seen Mehmet at the police headquarters. The provincial governor conducted enquiries among members of the armed forces and the police. The police officers interviewed maintained that Mehmet had never been detained in police custody. In a letter of 4 November 1992, the provincial governor requested the national police headquarters to appoint an investigating officer to carry out enquiries into the applicant's allegations. According to the applicant, the authorities prosecuted Tahir Elçi (see A44/43/1/28), a lawyer, for the role he had played in the lodging of certain applications, including that of the applicant, with the Commission. The applicant maintained that on 23 November 1993 all the documents relating to the case had been seized by the security forces when Elçi was arrested.
On 9 May 2000, the European Court of Human Rights unanimously ruled that there had been a violation of Article 2 of the Convention on account of the death of the applicant's son at the hands of agents of the State and the lack of an adequate and effective investigation into the circumstances surrounding his disappearance. The Government were ordered to pay İsmail Ertak £15,000 sterling in pecuniary damages and £20,000 sterling in non-pecuniary damages to be held for Mehmet Ertak’s widow and children, £2,500 sterling in non-pecuniary damages for İsmail Ertak himself, and £12,000 sterling (less 14,660.35 French francs received in legal aid) in costs and expenses. The full judgment is available for viewing at https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/?i=001-59199.

The files in this sub-sub-series are equivalent to Tabs 1 through 18 in the legal team’s filing system, plus documents originally placed in sleeves at the front of the casefile binder.