Mehmet Bilen v. Turkey (5337/02)

Date	20080408
Article	5
Decision	violation

Violation of Article 5 §§ 3, 4 and 5

Mehmet Bilen v. Turkey (no. 5337/02)

The applicant, Mehmet Bilen, is a Turkish national who was born in 1960 and lives in Diyarbakır (Turkey).

The case concerned the applicant’s complaint about the length and unlawfulness of his detention in police custody in April 2001 on suspicion of membership of an illegal organisation. He also alleged, in particular, that there was no effective remedy under Turkish law through which he could have contested the unlawfulness of his detention or obtained compensation. He relied on Article 5 §§ 3, 4 and 5 (right to liberty and security).

The Court could not accept that it had been necessary to detain the applicant for nine days without judicial intervention and therefore held unanimously that there had been a violation of Article 5 § 3. The Court recalled that it had already found violations in a number of previous cases concerning the lack of an effective remedy under Turkish law to contest the unlawfulness of detention and obtain compensation. It therefore also held unanimously that there had been a violation of Article 5 §§ 4 and 5. Mr Bilen was awarded EUR 3,500 in respect of non-pecuniary damage. (The judgment is available only in English.)