ÇAKICI v. TURKEY JUDGMENT 22 3. The Commission 84. The Commission was of the opinion that in the circumstances of this case there was a very strong probability that Ahmet Çakıcı was no longer alive and that this, since it arose in the context of an unacknowledged detention and findings of ill-treatment, disclosed a failure by the authorities to comply with their obligations under Article 2. B. The Court’s assessment 85. The Court has accepted above the Commission’s establishment of the facts in this case, namely, that Ahmet Çakıcı was the victim of an unacknowledged detention and serious ill-treatment. As the Commission pointed out, very strong inferences may be drawn from the authorities’ claim that his identity card was found on the body of a dead terrorist. The Court finds on this basis that there is sufficient circumstantial evidence, based on concrete elements, on which it may be concluded beyond reasonable doubt that Ahmet Çakıcı died following his apprehension and detention by the security forces. This case is therefore to be distinguished from the Kurt case (Kurt judgment cited above, p. 1182, §§ 107-08), in which the Court examined the applicant’s complaints about the disappearance of her son under Article 5. In the Kurt case, although the applicant’s son had been taken into detention, no other elements of evidence existed as regarded his treatment or fate subsequent to that. 86. The Court reiterates that Article 2 of the Convention, which safeguards the right to life, ranks as one of the most fundamental provisions in the Convention and, together with Article 3 of the Convention, enshrines one of the basic values of the democratic societies making up the Council of Europe (see the McCann and Others judgment cited above, pp. 45-46, §§ 146-47). The obligation imposed is not exclusively concerned with intentional killing resulting from the use of force by agents of the State but also extends, in the first sentence of Article 2 § 1, to imposing a positive obligation on States that the right to life be protected by law. This requires by implication that there should be some form of effective official investigation when individuals have been killed as a result of the use of force (see, among other authorities, the Yaşa v. Turkey judgment of 2 September 1998, Reports 1998-VI, p. 2438, § 98). 87. As Ahmet Çakıcı must be presumed dead following an unacknowledged detention by the security forces, the Court finds that the responsibility of the respondent State for his death is engaged. It observes that no explanation has been forthcoming from the authorities as to what occurred following his apprehension, nor any ground of justification relied on by the Government in respect of any use of lethal force by their agents.

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