European Court of Human Rights

SECOND SECTION

DECISION

Applications nos. 21249/03 and 24845/03
by Ahmet ÖZTEKİN and Celal AYGEN and Others
against Turkey

The European Court of Human Rights (Second Section), sitting on 13 January 2009 as a Chamber composed of:

Françoise Tulkens, President,
Ireneu Cabral Barreto,
Vladimiro Zagrebelsky,
Danutė Jočienė,
András Sajó,
Nona Tsotsoria,
Işıl Karakaş, judges,
and Sally Dollé, Section Registrar,

Having regard to the above applications lodged on 25 April 2003,

Having regard to the formal declarations accepting a friendly settlement of the cases,

Having deliberated, decides as follows:

THE FACTS

The applicants, Mr Ahmet Öztekin, Mr Celal Aygen, Mr Orhan Göçen, Mr İdris Ertaş and Mr Ferhat Asık, are Turkish nationals who were born in 1977, 1977, 1983, 1980 and 1979 respectively and all live in Diyarbakır. They were represented before the Court by Mr M.Z. Dündar, a lawyer practising in Diyarbakır. The Turkish Government (“the Government”) were represented by their Agent.

The facts of the cases, as submitted by the parties, may be summarised as follows.

On 25 October 2002 the applicants were arrested and taken into custody on suspicion of their membership of an illegal organisation, namely Kürdistan İslami Devrim Hareketi¹.

On 1 November 2002 the applicants were brought before a judge, who ordered their remand in custody.

On 11 December 2002 the public prosecutor at the Diyarbakır State Security Court filed a bill of indictment against the applicants and twenty-five other persons, accusing them of founding and being members of the aforementioned illegal organisation.

COMPLAINT

The applicants complained that their detention in police custody for seven days had violated their right to be brought promptly before a judge or other officer authorised by law to exercise judicial power as safeguarded under Article 5 § 3 of the Convention.

THE LAW

The Court received the following declaration from the Government:

“I declare that the Government of Turkey offer to pay ex gratia 1,500 (one thousand five hundred) euros to each of the applicants in respect of non-pecuniary damages and 500 (five hundred) euros in respect of costs and expenses jointly with a view to securing a friendly settlement of the above-mentioned cases pending before the European Court of Human Rights.

These sums, which are to cover any non-pecuniary damage as well as costs and expenses, will be converted into new Turkish liras (YTL) at the rate applicable on the date of payment, to a bank account named by the applicants and/or their duly authorised representative. This sum shall be payable within three months from the date of notification of the decision taken by the Court pursuant to Article 37 § 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights. In the event of failure to pay these sums within the said three-month period, the Government undertake to pay simple interest on them, from expiry of that period until settlement, at a rate equal to the marginal lending rate of the European Central Bank during the default period plus three percentage points. The payment will constitute the final resolution of the cases.”

The Court received the following declaration signed by the applicants' representative:

“I note that the Government of Turkey are prepared to pay ex gratia 1,500 (one thousand five hundred) euros to each of the applicants in respect of non-pecuniary damages and 500 (five hundred) euros in respect of costs and expenses jointly with a view to securing a friendly settlement of the above-mentioned cases pending before the European Court of Human Rights.

These sums, which are to cover any non-pecuniary damage as well as costs and expenses, will be converted into new Turkish liras (YTL) at the rate applicable on the date of payment, and free of any taxes that may be applicable. This sum shall be payable within three months from the date of notification of the decision taken by the Court pursuant to Article 37 § 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights. From the expiry of the above-mentioned three months until settlement simple interest shall be payable on the above amounts at a rate equal to the marginal lending rate of the European Central Bank during the default period plus three percentage points.

We accept the proposal and waive any further claims against Turkey in respect of the facts giving rise to this application. We declare that this constitutes a final resolution of the cases.”

The Court takes note of the friendly settlement reached between the parties. It is satisfied that the settlement is based on respect for human rights as defined in the Convention and its Protocols and finds no public policy reasons to justify a continued examination of the applications (Article 37 § 1 in fine of the Convention). In view of the above, it is appropriate to strike these cases out of the list.

For these reasons, the Court unanimously

Decides to join the applications;

Decides to strike the applications out of its list of cases.

Sally Dollé Françoise Tulkens
Registrar President