ELCI AND OTHERS v. TURKEY JUDGMENT 11 interrogation room and accused of being a courier for the PKK. She replied that she had visited prisons by reason of her job. She alleged that she was slapped twice and told to strip. As she was removing her jumper, she was ordered to get dressed again. She was advised to confess later or be tortured. She was then returned to her cell. During the evening of the following day, she was interrogated again. She was accused of being the secretary of the Human Rights Association and of working for the PKK. For a whole week she was questioned about her activities for the Association, and particularly about applications against Turkey made to European institutions. 54. Two days before being brought to court, she was taken from her cell in the middle of the night. She was given a pen and told to sign some papers. She refused to do so without reading them first, whereupon she was taken elsewhere and tortured, being stripped naked, subjected to continual insults and hosed down with cold water three times, for at least an hour each time. She was threatened with being tortured in front of her husband. As a result of the cold water treatment and the probable ensuing hypothermia, she contracted pneumonia, of which she had medical evidence. 55. During her 25 days in custody (24 days according to official records), the applicant was allowed to go to the toilet twice daily and was given a piece of bread once a day. Deafening music was played throughout her detention and she heard others screaming. 56. She was released on 10 December 1993. (For further details see the summary of her oral evidence, §§ 188-204 below.) 9. The case of Mesut Beştaş 57. Apart from the death threat, Mr Beştaş recounts similar events to those experienced by his wife concerning their apprehension on 16 November 1993 (paragraph 53 above). At the Diyarbakır provincial gendarmerie command, he was put in a cell and given a single blanket, which was insufficient protection from the cold. He was allowed a slice of bread a day during his detention. 58. He was accused of being a courier for the PKK. The applicant insisted that he was a lawyer who took on all kinds of cases. He claimed that he was frequently taken to the interrogation room, being beaten up on his way there, and being threatened with torture. During his 25 days in custody (24 days according to official records), he was blindfolded and he was forced to listen to very loud music and nationalist songs. He was also forced to sign a statement after threats to sexually abuse his wife were made. 59. The applicant was brought before the State Security Court Prosecutor on 10 December 1993. The questions put to him were based on the false declarations of a former PKK member, Abdülhakim Güven, who had benefited from the Remorse Law. He was released and then re-arrested on 14 December 1993, after the Prosecutor's appeal, and remanded in the