ÇAKICI v. TURKEY JUDGMENT
9
(see paragraph 37 above). It stated that a preliminary investigation
(no. 1994/191) had been started and was still pending.
40. By letter dated 5 March 1996, the Hazro public prosecutor informed
the Ministry of Justice that upon its request the Diyarbakır AttorneyGeneral had been instructed to take a statement from Mustafa Engin.
41. On 12 March 1996, a police officer took a brief statement from
Mustafa Engin in which it was stated that he had not seen Ahmet Çakıcı for
three years. On 13 May 1996, a public prosecutor at Diyarbakır took a
statement from Mustafa Engin. In this statement, he stated, inter alia, that
he had not seen Ahmet Çakıcı in custody though Ahmet Çakıcı might have
seen him and referred to himself having been given electric shocks once
while he was detained at Diyarbakır provincial gendarmerie headquarters.
42. By decision of 13 June 1996, Hazro public prosecutor Mustafa
Turhan issued a decision of lack of jurisdiction and transferred the file to the
District Administrative Council. The decision named the applicant and
Remziye Çakıcı as the complainants and identified the victim as Ahmet
Çakıcı. The offence was described as ill-treatment, torture and confiscation
of money of a detainee and the defendants as unidentified individuals of
Hazro gendarmerie station and village guards. It stated that the
complainants claimed that soldiers from Hazro gendarmerie command
arrived in Çitlibahçe on the morning of 8 November 1993 and detained the
victim, that the victim had been taken to Diyarbakır where he was tortured
and that a lieutenant had removed TRL 4,280,000 from him. The
investigation had established that the victim was a member of the PKK
terrorist organisation and that following an operation by the security forces
in the Kıllıboğan Hill region on 17 and 19 February the victim’s identity
card had been located on one of the dead terrorists, thus confirming the
individual’s identity as Ahmet Çakıcı without doubt. Mustafa Engin had
made a statement to the effect that he had not seen Ahmet Çakıcı. The
suspects fell under the Law on the prosecution of civil servants and
following the withdrawal by the Hazro prosecution the documentation was
transferred to the Presidency of Hazro District Administrative Council for
the necessary action.
E. The Commission’s evaluation of the evidence and its findings of
fact
43. Since the facts of the case were disputed, particularly concerning the
events in or around November 1993, the Commission conducted an
investigation, with the assistance of the parties, and accepted documentary
evidence, including written statements and oral evidence taken from eleven
witnesses: the applicant; Fevzi Okatan, previous muhtar of Çitlibahçe;
Remziye Çakıcı, the wife of Ahmet Çakıcı; Mustafa Engin, who had been
detained at Diyarbakır provincial gendarmerie headquarters from