Abdulkadir Aktaş v. Turkey (38851/02)
| Date | 20080131 |
|---|---|
| Article | 5 |
| Decision | violation |
Violation of Article 5 §§ 1 (c), 4 and 5
No violation of Article 3
Abdulkadir Aktaş v. Turkey (no. 38851/02)
The applicant, Abdulkadir Aktaş, is a Turkish national who was born in 1980 and is currently being held in Elazığ Prison (Turkey).
The applicant was arrested on 6 October 2002 on suspicion of being a member of the armed fundamentalist organisation Hizbullah and was taken into police custody. On 11 October 2002 he was placed in pre-trial detention in Diyarbakır Prison. A few hours after being admitted to the prison, he was taken back to the security police headquarters for further questioning. The applicant did not return to the prison until 21 October 2002. The medical examination carried out on the date of his arrest revealed various injuries and marks on his body, but the seven subsequent reports stated that there were “no signs of assault”, apart from a few scabs. A complaint by the applicant alleging ill-treatment resulted in a decision not to prosecute.
The applicant alleged that he had been detained in breach of Article 5 §§ 1, 3, 4 and 5 (right to liberty and security). He also complained, under Article 3 (prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment), of the treatment to which he had been subjected during his arrest and while in police custody.
The Court noted that it had previously examined a similar case and found violations of Article 5 §§ 1 and 4 of the Convention in that the applicant had been handed back to the police for questioning after being placed in pre-trial detention, thus circumventing the applicable legislation on the periods that could be spent in police custody, and on account of the lack of effective judicial review. It therefore held unanimously that there had been a violation of Article 5 §§ 1 (c) and 4 and did not consider it necessary to carry out a separate examination of the complaint under Article 5 § 3. The Court lastly noted that in the circumstances of the case the applicant could not rely on the legislation providing for the award of compensation for unlawful arrest or unwarranted detention in breach of Article 5 § 5. With regard to the applicant’s allegations of ill-treatment, the Court observed that the scabs and swelling observed on his body did not imply that there had been gratuitous use of disproportionate force during the arrest. As to the conditions of the applicant’s detention, the Court noted that the medical reports did not mention any signs of ill-treatment on his body, and held unanimously that there had been no violation of Article 3. The Court awarded the applicant 9,000 euros (EUR) for non-pecuniary damage. (The judgment is available only in French.)