Nart v. Turkey (20817/04)

Date	20080506
Article	5(3)
Decision	violation

Violation of Article 5 §§ 3 and 4

Nart v. Turkey (application no. 20817/04)

The applicant, Tolga Nart, is a Turkish national who was born in 1986 and is currently in detention on remand in Uşak Prison (Turkey) on account of an offence unrelated to his case before the European Court of Human Rights.

On 28 November 2003 the applicant, 17 years’ old at the time, was arrested on suspicion of armed robbery. He was released pending trial on 16 January 2004. Those proceedings against him are apparently still pending. Relying on Article 5 §§ 3 and 4 (right to liberty and security) of the European Convention on Human Rights, the applicant complained about the excessive length of his detention on remand and that he had no effective remedy with which to challenge the lawfulness of that detention.

The European Court of Human Rights found that the length of the applicant’s pre-trial detention, 48 days, had been excessive, especially given the fact that he was a minor at the time. It therefore held, by five votes to two, that there had been a violation of Article 5 § 3 of the Convention. It further found, as in several cases before it having raised similar issues, that the applicant had had no effective remedy with which to challenge the lawfulness of his detention on remand. Accordingly, it held unanimously that there had been a violation of Article 5 § 4. Mr Nart was awarded 750 euros (EUR) in respect of non-pecuniary damage. (The judgment is available only in English