Keeping up to date with the French blog... A new condemnation for Turkey
After covering in length the Terri Schiavo case, and its tragic ending, I would like to return to another concern, and one of the main questions of interest for this blog: the question of police violence. I should like to precise that the French version of this blog (http://aurore-europe.blogspot.com does not cover the same information, nor are the contents always strictly the same.
Nevertheless, in a previous post on the French site, I had mentionned a new decision by Strabourg's European Court of Human Rights, which condemned Turkey for not having respect the article 2 of the European Convention of Human Rights (right to life) and the article 13 (right to a remedy).
The facts of the case are simple, and enlightening: neither the government nor the applicant disputed that the victim, a young Kurdish man, was killed during a police operation against members of the PKK (a Kurdish extremist party). The applicant (who was the brother of the victim) maintained that the police had purposely killed the victim, then tried to masquerade the crime into an incident with one of the suspects. The police alleged that the victim was killed by a person they wished to arrest, also a Kurd. The Court found that while there were no indications to say that the police killed the victim, or that the latter was tortured, however, by following the explanations given by the police, they had needlessly endangered the life of a person under custody, and had, in addition, failed to investigate the killing in a satisfying manner. That was held to be a breach of article 2 of the Convention. The Court also found that the absence of investigation was also a breach of article 13.
The decision is only available in French for the time being, and you may find it over here: Decision Gezici c./ Turquie, 17/03/2005 .
Now, in discussions with other people, when I raised the question of the lack of respect for human rights in Turkey, I received the reply that few are the countries which effectively respect those criteria in today's Europe.
Nevertheless, in a previous post on the French site, I had mentionned a new decision by Strabourg's European Court of Human Rights, which condemned Turkey for not having respect the article 2 of the European Convention of Human Rights (right to life) and the article 13 (right to a remedy).
The facts of the case are simple, and enlightening: neither the government nor the applicant disputed that the victim, a young Kurdish man, was killed during a police operation against members of the PKK (a Kurdish extremist party). The applicant (who was the brother of the victim) maintained that the police had purposely killed the victim, then tried to masquerade the crime into an incident with one of the suspects. The police alleged that the victim was killed by a person they wished to arrest, also a Kurd. The Court found that while there were no indications to say that the police killed the victim, or that the latter was tortured, however, by following the explanations given by the police, they had needlessly endangered the life of a person under custody, and had, in addition, failed to investigate the killing in a satisfying manner. That was held to be a breach of article 2 of the Convention. The Court also found that the absence of investigation was also a breach of article 13.
The decision is only available in French for the time being, and you may find it over here: Decision Gezici c./ Turquie, 17/03/2005 .
Now, in discussions with other people, when I raised the question of the lack of respect for human rights in Turkey, I received the reply that few are the countries which effectively respect those criteria in today's Europe.
posted by dawnofeurope | 4:10 pm
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