ELCI AND OTHERS v. TURKEY JUDGMENT 10 told to sign the statement and, when he refused, he and Tahir Elçi were taken to the toilet, stripped naked and tortured with cold pressurised water. When he could not take any more, the applicant began hitting his head against the wall. He was then taken out, dressed and placed with his friends. The next day he was brought before a court. (For further details see the summary of his oral evidence, §§ 159-172 below.) 7. The case of Mehmet Selim Kurbanoğlu 49. On 20 November 1993 at 7.20 a.m., the applicant was taken into custody by gendarmes from his home, after it was searched. Nothing was seized. He believed that his arrest was based on the abstract declarations of a PKK confessor, Abdülhakim Güven, whom the applicant had met when visiting clients in prison, and who was seeking to save himself. He also considered his arrest to have been unlawful, as being contrary to the safeguards provided by the Law on Advocates (see paragraphs 584-586 below). 50. He was blindfolded and transported to the Diyarbakır provincial gendarmerie command. He was placed in a crowded, damp corridor near a toilet where he was required to lie on the cold, concrete floor with only a blanket. As everyone was blindfolded, he made voice contact with the other detained lawyers. 51. During the 21 days he was in custody (20 days according to official records), he alleged that he was punched, slapped, kicked, threatened with death and kept constantly blindfolded. He was given nothing to eat apart from half a loaf of bread a day. He was made to sign a fabricated record of the aforementioned search (which falsely indicated that a PKK note had been seized), as well as a statement, which he later repudiated before the Public Prosecutor. 52. On 10 December 1993 he was brought before the Diyarbakır State Security Court, when he was released. On 15 December 1993 he was rearrested after the Prosecutor's appeal, and remanded in the Diyarbakır Etype prison. (For further details see the summary of his oral evidence, §§ 173-187 below.) 8. The case of Meral Daniş Beştaş 53. Mrs Beştaş and her husband were taken into custody during the early evening of 16 November 1993 when leaving the Diyarbakır State Security Court. They were transported in a car by people who said they were contraguerillas disguised as officers. During transportation she and her husband were threatened with death. They were taken to what she later learned was the Diyarbakır provincial gendarmerie command. She was kept standing, facing a wall, for a couple of hours and then put in a very cold, dark cell on her own and given a blanket. Half an hour later she was taken to the