File 84 - Sinan Tanrıkulu

7 items

Materials pertaining to the case filed on 25 August 1995 by lawyer Sinan Tanrıkulu against the Republic of Turkey with the European Commission of Human Rights (application no. 29918/96, referred to internally within the Kurdish Litigation Project as Case 226 and assigned to Tim Otty as lead) regarding his detention on 27 February 1995 after he and 13 others were taken from the Diyarbakır Branch of the Human Rights Association to the Security Directorate. Tanrıkulu alleged that during his time in detention he was blindfolded, tortured, and subject to inhumane conditions. On 9 March 1995, Tanrıkulu, Servet Ayhan and Fırat Anlı were brought before the public prosecutor and the State Security Court. The latter ordered their remand in custody. On 22 March 1995 the public prosecutor at the State Security Court filed an indictment with the latter accusing the applicants and the other suspects of having made propaganda on behalf of the PKK. On 1 May 1995 the State Security Court, taking into account the charges and the evidence against the applicants, ordered their release pending trial. On 8 April 1996 the State Security Court acquitted the applicants of all charges. It held that the materials found in the search could have been placed there by anyone and that apart from their statements in custody, which the applicants claimed to have given under duress, there was no evidence to convict them.
Ayhan (29919/96) and Anlı (30169/96) were also applicants to the Commission/Court; Ayhan was also represented by Otty. On 24 February 2005 the Court joined the applications together. It retained the applicants’ complaint concerning the length of their detention in custody and the first and the third applicants’ complaint pertaining to the unlawfulness of their arrest and detention in custody. On 6 October 2005, the Court ruled unanimously that there had been a violation of Article 5 § 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights regarding the unlawfulness of the applicants’ arrest and detention in custody. Tanrıkulu and Anlı were each awarded €6,000 in pecuniary and non-pecuniary damages; Ayhan was awarded €5,000 in non-pecuniary damages; Tanrıkulu and Ayhan were jointly awarded €5,000 in legal costs and expenses; and Anlı was awarded €3,400 in legal costs and expenses. The full judgment is available for viewing at https://hudoc.echr.coe.int/?i=001-70463.
Materials in the file available for viewing include the notice of application filed on 25 August 1995 on behalf of Sinan Tanrıkulu including his statement and letter of legal authorisation, the completed application of 23 November 1995 including appendices, and Aisling Reidy’s notice of 28 April 1997 that the replies of the applicant to the Turkish Government’s observations have been sent.

All materials produced by the Commission or by the Turkish Government, including correspondence from the Commission, the Commission’s 24 October 1996 statement of case facts, and the observations of the Government including appended case documents, are closed to access until 1 November 2073.

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