Eight Torture Verdicts Against Turkey From The ECHR

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) sentence Turkey to pay total of 72 thousand five hundred euro for not having investigated the torture claims for the eight victims.

The court sentenced Turkey to pay 15 thousand euro for causing the death of union activist Süleyman Yeter, who was taken into custody for being a member of the Marxist Leninist Communist Party (MLKP) by Istanbul’s Anti-Terror Department on February 22, 1997.

In yesterday’s (October 14) decision, the ECHR sentenced Turkey to pay 15 thousand euro for having Erdoğan Yılmaz, Ayşe Yılmaz and Birsen Kaya, who were charged by the security forces with MLKP membership, tortured while in custody.

Journalist Mehmet Eren, a People’s Democracy Party (HADEP) member, who was taken into custody in Diyarbakır together with 108 people for protesting the capture of Abdullah Öcalan, leader of the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK), had applied to the ECHR on the grounds that he was subjected to bad treatment while in custody and those responsible for it were not investigated thoroughly. Ruling that the bad treatment allegation needed investigation, the court sentenced Turkey to pay 7 thousand five hundred euro.

The ECHR saw no need to take up Eren’s unfair trial complaint separately. (EÖ/EÜ/TB)