Koç and Others v. Turkey (38327/04)

Date	20080930
Article	8
Decision	violation

Violation of Article 8

Koç and Others v. Turkey (no. 38327/04)

Nakçi v. Turkey (no. 25886/04)

The seven applicants are Turkish nationals. They are or were detained in Gaziantep Prison (Turkey).

They complained of the prison authorities’ refusal to deliver correspondence addressed to them. They relied in particular on Article 8 (right to respect for correspondence).

The Court observed that it had already found that Articles 144 and 147 of Regulation no. 647 on prison management and the execution of sentences did not indicate with sufficient clarity the scope and manner of exercise of the authorities’ discretion to control prisoners’ correspondence. Similarly, it had previously noted that implementation of the regulation in practice did not appear to make up for this shortcoming.

The Court accordingly considered that the interference with the applicants’ right to respect for their correspondence was not “in accordance with the law” and therefore held unanimously that there had been a violation of Article 8. It held that the finding of a violation constituted in itself sufficient just satisfaction for the non-pecuniary damage suffered by the applicants. (The judgments are available only in French.)