ÇAKICI v. TURKEY JUDGMENT
23
Liability for Ahmet Çakıcı’s death is therefore attributable to the respondent
State and there has accordingly been a violation of Article 2 on that account.
Furthermore, having regard to the lack of effective procedural safeguards
disclosed by the inadequate investigation carried out into the disappearance
and the alleged finding of Ahmet Çakıcı’s body (see paragraphs 80 and 10507), the Court finds that the respondent State has failed in its obligation to
protect his right to life. Accordingly, there has been a violation of Article 2
of the Convention on this account also.
IV. ALLEGED VIOLATIONS OF ARTICLE 3 OF THE CONVENTION
A. Concerning the applicant’s brother, Ahmet Çakıcı
88. The applicant alleged that his brother had been the victim of
breaches by the respondent State of Article 3 of the Convention, which
provides:
“No one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or
punishment.”
89. The applicant submitted that his brother had been subjected to
serious ill-treatment, amounting to torture, while detained at Hazro and at
Diyarbakır provincial gendarmerie headquarters. He had, inter alia, been
beaten and subjected to electric shocks. The applicant further submitted that
the failure to provide an effective investigation into the circumstances of
Ahmet Çakıcı’s detention disclosed an additional breach of Article 3,
relying on Assenov and Others v. Bulgaria (judgment of 28 October 1998,
Reports 1998-VIII, p. 3179, § 102).
90. The Government’s submissions on this aspect were restricted to their
criticisms of the Commission’s assessment of the facts and of its alleged
failure to apply a strict standard of interpretation in keeping with the caselaw regarding Article 3 of the Convention.
91. The Commission considered that the evidence of Mustafa Engin,
who had witnessed the after-effects of the ill-treatment of Ahmet Çakıcı and
to whom Ahmet Çakıcı had spoken of being beaten and subjected to electric
shocks, provided a sufficient basis for finding that Ahmet Çakıcı had been
tortured. It expressed the consideration that in cases of unacknowledged
detention and disappearance independent, objective medical evidence or
eyewitness testimony was unlikely to be forthcoming and that to require
either as a prerequisite of a finding of a violation of Article 3 would
undermine the protection afforded by that provision.
92. The Court notes that Mustafa Engin’s evidence to the delegates was
judged to be reliable and credible. This witness was detained in the same
room as Ahmet Çakıcı for a period of sixteen to seventeen days and had the