Sub-sub-series 35 - Nesime Haran

8 files

Materials pertaining to the case filed by Nesibe Haran on 22 June 1995 against the Republic of Turkey with the European Commission of Human Rights (application number 22275/93, referred to internally within the Kurdish Litigation Project as Case 204 and assigned to Bill Bowring as lead, later succeeded by Anke Stock of the Kurdish Human Rights Project) regarding the disappearance of her husband, İhsan Haran, on 24 December 1994. Supplementary materials pertaining to this case are located at A44/43/6/43. Materials pertaining to a separate case regarding the disappearance of İhsan Haran's brother Vahdettin Haran are found at A44/43/1/34.
On an unspecified date, one of Nesibe Haran’s brothers and a paternal cousin joined the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party). At that time, the applicant and İhsan Haran approached the Lice public prosecutor’s office and told the prosecutor that they were not in the least responsible for anything the brother and the cousin did and that the brother and the cousin had become involved in the PKK without the knowledge of the applicant or İhsan Haran. The public prosecutor said that he did not intend to open any kind of case against the applicant or İhsan because of these events. In any event, İhsan would hide in the forest when soldiers would come to the village of Arıklı where they were residing. On 12 May 1994 the applicant and her husband together with their children moved from their village to Diyarbakır after their village was destroyed by the security forces. They did not consider it appropriate to give their new address to the authorities.
On 24 December 1994, İhsan Haran did not return from the construction site of the Diyarbakır underground market where he had been working for the previous eight days. The applicant and other family members did not find this unusual because if there was extra work he would remain at work and not return home. On 27 December 1994, Fahri Hazar, a co-villager, came to the applicant’s house and told her that on the morning of 24 December 1994 an identity check had been carried out by uniformed police officers at the construction site where İhsan had been working and that while they were checking İhsan’s identity papers, they started arguing amongst themselves. This argument lasted for some ten minutes and then the police officers took İhsan Haran away. On 30 December 1994, Hazar was arrested and taken into police custody.
After learning that her husband was arrested by the police officers, Nesibe Haran tried to file a petition with the public prosecutor’s office at the State Security Court in order to learn of his whereabouts. However, she was prevented from submitting her petition by the police officers standing in front of the State Security Court. She and other family members tried to see the public prosecutor for about a month without success. The applicant then started visiting several prisons in order to find out whether anyone had seen her husband. She met one person, who the applicant requested not to be named, who was placed in the Dormitory 31 at the Diyarbakır E-type prison and who told her that he had seen İhsan Haran in custody. On 1 February 1995 İhsan Haran’s brothers were taken into custody. In a statement dated 7 September 2004 given to their own legal representative, they said that while they were held in police custody they were threatened by the police officers that they would also be killed like their brother İhsan Haran.
Following the communication of the application by the European Commission on Human Rights on 26 February 1996 to the Government, the Diyarbakır public prosecutor’s office opened an investigation into the applicant’s allegations. On 21 January 1998 the Diyarbakır public prosecutor held that there was no need for a further investigation as there was no evidence showing that İhsan Haran had disappeared in police custody. He observed that since 1994 there was no record of any complaint made to the offices of the Diyarbakır public prosecutor and of the public prosecutor at the Diyarbakır State Security Court and of the Lice public prosecutor. He noted that no record had been found that İhsan Haran had been taken into custody by the Diyarbakır Security Directorate, Anti-terror branch, and the Provincial Gendarmerie Commander. It further observed that İhsan Haran was being searched for by the Diyarbakır Anti-terror branch. On 12 April 2004 the General Security Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs informed the Ministry of Justice that İhsan Haran was sought for his involvement in an illegal organisation following testimonies of certain suspects. In the same letter, the Ministry of Justice was informed that Nesibe Haran and İhsan Haran were not married.
On 1 November 1998, the case was transmitted to the European Court of Human Rights. During proceedings, the Court was ‘struck by the reluctance of the applicant or any other member of the family of İhsan Haran to be involved in the ongoing investigations. Since the disappearance of İhsan Haran in 1994, no evidence was provided by the applicant showing that the applicant or any member of his or her family undertook any steps to inquire about the state of the investigations relating to the disappearance of İhsan Haran… … However, the conduct of the applicant does not absolve the national authorities from their obligation to conduct a meaningful investigation into the circumstances surrounding a disappearance within the limits of the practical realities of investigation work. In the present case, it is Court’s view that there were striking omissions in the conduct of the investigation. In this connection, the Court observes that the initial investigation conducted by the Diyarbakır public prosecutor appears to have consisted solely of checking custody records of the Diyarbakır Security Directorate and that it was not until 29 February 2000 and 15 May 2001 that the Diyarbakır public prosecutor’s office tried to obtain statements of the applicant and other family members.’
On 15 September 2005, the European Court of Human Rights unanimously ruled that there had been a violation of Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights on account of the national authorities’ failure to carry out an adequate and effective investigation into the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of İhsan Haran. The Court ruled unanimously that there had not been violations of the Convention with regard to Articles 3, 5, 14, and 18, or of Article 2 regarding the applicant’s allegation that İhsan Haran was abducted and killed by State agents or persons acting on behalf of the State authorities. The Turkish Government was ordered to pay Nesibe Haran €10,000 in non-pecuniary damages and €4,000 in costs and expenses. The full judgment is available for viewing at https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/?i=001-70458.

The files in this sub-sub-series are equivalent to Tabs 1 through 8 in the legal team’s filing system.