ELCI AND OTHERS v. TURKEY JUDGMENT 85 had been contacting citizens in the Emergency Rule Region and convincing them to sign and finger print blank sheets of paper. e) Extract of the report dated 7 November 1996 by the Lawyers' Committee (USA) on an exchange with the Chief State Security Court Prosecutor, Bekir Selçuk 559. Mr Selçuk was reported as saying, as regards incommunicado detention in contravention of international norms, “I have my own objectives, and if the European Convention conflicts with them, it must take second place.” f) Preliminary report of a European Lawyer's Committee for Human Rights dated 7 November 1996 560. Members of this Committee held a 16-day inquiry in Turkey in 1996, out of concern for allegations of hostility from the Turkish authorities to Turkish lawyers engaged in the promotion of human rights. The pressures on lawyers were such that very few practitioners were prepared to take on State Security Court cases, particularly in the South East of the country. Nezmattullah Gündüz, a former President of the Diyarbakır Bar Association told the Committee that, “No one can fulfil his duties as a lawyer in these cases... The work is a kind of slow suicide”. 561. In contrast, in two interviews with the Diyarbakır Chief State Security Prosecutor, Bekir Selçuk, the latter maintained that there were no cases where lawyers had been prosecuted for defending terrorists. Rather they were prosecuted for having organic links with the PKK. In no way were lawyers sanctioned for their contacts with the European Commission of Human Rights. 562. The Committee expressed concern about the practice of prolonged incommunicado pre-trial detention in State Security Court proceedings. Such detention was devoid of essential safeguards, in particular prompt access to legal advice and judicial supervision of the detention of suspects and, thus, there was an enhanced possibility of torture with impunity. g) The Report of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment 1993 563. This report referred to allegations that no judicial or disciplinary proceedings appeared to have been taken against officials accused of unlawful practices, and listed examples of pressure being brought to bear on doctors to issue misleading reports and to note complaints perfunctorily if any investigations into such matters were commenced.