Item 2 - Tahsin Acar, Mehmet Salim Acar v Turkey, Applicant's observations upon the Government's application that the application be struck out pursuant to Article 37 of the Convention

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Observations authored by Philip Leach, Reyhan Yalçındağ, and Cihan Aydın regarding the Turkish Government's request to the European Court of Human Rights to strike out the application (application no. 26307/95) of Tahsin Acar lodged on behalf of his brother, Mehmet Salim Acar. Mehmet Salim Acar had disappeared on 20 August 1994, when he was abducted by two unidentified persons – allegedly plain-clothes police officers. Tahsin Acar complained of the unlawfulness and excessive length of his brother’s detention, of the ill-treatment and acts of torture to which his brother had allegedly been subjected while in detention, and of the failure to provide his brother with the necessary medical care in detention. Tahsin Acar further complained that his brother had been deprived of the services of a lawyer and of all contact with his family. On 27 August 2001, the Government requested the Court to strike the case out of its list and enclosed the text of a unilateral declaration with a view to resolving the issues raised by the applicant. In the observations, it is contended that, 'it is not appropriate to use Article 37 to dispose of an application on the basis of a declaration that does not admit the breach of the fundamental human rights alleged in the application', and that, 'It would be unfair and unjust by the use of the Court's powers under Article 37 to permit the Government to "dispose" of this application by payment ex gratia of a sum of money and a very restricted declaration, and to impose the Government's terms upon the applicant who for good and proper reasons does not wish to accept them.'

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