ÇAKICI v. TURKEY JUDGMENT 4 B. The facts 9. The facts surrounding the disappearance of the applicant’s brother are disputed. 10. The facts presented by the applicant are contained in Section 1 below. In his memorial to the Court, the applicant relied on the facts as established by the Commission in its report (former Article 31 of the Convention) adopted on 12 March 1998 and his previous submissions to the Commission. 11. The facts as presented by the Government are set out in Section 2. 12. A description of the materials submitted to the Commission is contained in Part C. A description of the proceedings before the domestic authorities regarding the disappearance of the applicant’s brother as established by the Commission is set out in Part D. 13. The Commission, with a view to establishing the facts in the light of the dispute over the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of the applicant’s brother, conducted its own investigation pursuant to former Article 28 § 1 (a) of the Convention. To this end, the Commission examined a series of documents submitted by both the applicant and the Government in support of their respective assertions and appointed three delegates to take the evidence of witnesses at hearings conducted in Ankara on 3 and 4 July 1996 and in Strasbourg on 4 December 1996. The Commission’s evaluation of the evidence and its findings thereon are summarised in Part E. 1. Facts as presented by the applicant 14. On 8 November 1993, the applicant’s brother, Ahmet Çakıcı, was detained during an operation in the village of Çitlibahçe carried out by gendarmes and village guards. When the operation commenced early in the morning, Ahmet Çakıcı hid in a house near the fountain while the other men were gathered in an open area. The security forces began setting fire to the houses. Ahmet Çakıcı retrieved money, 4,700,000 Turkish liras (TRL), which he had hidden in the roof of his house and was caught leaving the house. Ahmet Çakıcı was taken from the village by the security forces. This was witnessed by the other villagers. The money was taken from Ahmet Çakıcı by a first lieutenant. Remziye Çakıcı, Ahmet Çakıcı’s wife, was told by a boy from the village that he had seen a gendarme take money from Ahmet Çakıcı. 15. Ahmet Çakıcı was first taken to Hazro, where he was kept overnight before being taken to Diyarbakır. In Diyarbakır, he was detained at the provincial gendarmerie headquarters. After about six to seven days, he was held for sixteen to seventeen days in the same room as Mustafa Engin, Abdurrahman Al and Tahsin Demirbaş, who had been taken into custody on 8 November 1993 by the security forces in an operation at Bağlan. Ahmet