ELCI AND OTHERS v. TURKEY JUDGMENT 16 (paragraph 533 below). The evidence of a third informer was deemed inadequate. 76. Other evidence against the applicants consisted of their statements at the gendarmerie command, which they subsequently repudiated as having been made under duress. The State Security Court reserved the issue of the admissibility of those statements. The remaining evidence comprised incriminating documents such as PKK notes, receipts and newsletters, which the applicants alleged had been fabricated. 77. On 22 February 2001 the State Security Court suspended the proceedings for 5 years, to be taken up again should any of the applicants commit an offence of the same or more serious kind during that time; otherwise they would be definitively closed (see Law No. 4616 on conditional release, the suspension of proceedings or the execution of sentences in respect of crimes committed before 23 April 1999, paragraph 573 below). C. The oral evidence 78. Three Delegates of the European Commission of Human Rights took evidence in Ankara between 7 and 11 December 1998. The applicants, with the exception of Hüsniye Ölmez, appeared before the Delegates, as did several Government witnesses. The applicants' representatives stated that Ms Ölmez maintained her application even though she did not testify for fear of having to re-live the events and because she was pregnant at the time. The oral evidence may be summarised as follows: 1. Tahir Elçi 79. Mr Elçi was born in 1966. At the material time he was a practising lawyer in Cizre, but was now working in Diyarbakır. 80. In 1993 there had been some 10 practising lawyers in Cizre. He himself was registered at the Cizre Bar and handled different types of criminal cases. However, many people were taken into custody at that time and the applicant found himself more and more defending people before the Diyarbakır State Security Court. 81. On 23 November 1993 he was in his Cizre office at around 8.30 a.m. preparing a case with a client. Suddenly two armed officials entered his office and demanded that he accompany them to the Cizre police station. Two other officials waited outside. He was taken to the Cizre police headquarters, and his car was removed. 82. After waiting there for some time, Mr Elçi was taken back to his office by several other officials (requiring 2 or 3 vehicles). His office was searched. All his belongings were put in sacks, including many case files, notebooks, books (except legal text books), newspapers, magazines, an