ELCI AND OTHERS v. TURKEY JUDGMENT 17 address book and other documents. Amongst the case files were several involving applicants to the European Commission of Human Rights: Ahmet Özkan and others v. Turkey (No. 21689/93), Cağirge and others v. Turkey (No. 21895/93) and Ertak v. Turkey (No. 20764/92). A further application by Süleyman Kutluk and 50 others was in the course of preparation. These Commission files were never returned to the applicant in their entirety, unlike the domestic files. 83. In answer to questions from the Commission Delegates, Mr Elçi claimed that a document purporting to have been found in his office headed “Comrade Elçi” with an “ERNK”1 stamp on it, was a complete fabrication and was not to be found in the document delivery report. 84. The officials had drawn up a short, hand-written report, concluding that nothing incriminating had been found. His brother, Ömer Elçi, being present, had signed the report. 85. The applicant was then taken to his house where another search was conducted, but nothing incriminating was found. He was returned to the Cizre police headquarters where his personal belongings (belt, money and wallet) were removed. He was blindfolded and put in a dark cell in the basement. 86. Later he was taken out of the cell by a large group of officials and kicked, beaten, threatened with his life and insulted. He was made to remove his clothes, cold water was poured over him and his testicles were squeezed. He was asked why he took cases concerning villagers who had been evacuated from their homes, and why he denounced Turkey abroad. He did not think this was an interrogation, rather the officials were venting their anger on him. This ill-treatment lasted some 15 to 20 minutes before he was returned to his cell. 87. One of the Cizre policemen involved in this was a certain Ramaran Hoca or Kanlıdere, who had already accosted the applicant in the street to check his identity. As a member of the Diyarbakır Human Rights Association, assisting destitute villagers at a time of great tension in Cizre, involving clashes between the PKK and State forces, threats had been made to him previously by the Cizre police. 88. During the night he was transferred to the Cizre district gendarmerie command, where he was kept blindfolded in a corridor in the basement. He was not ill-treated there. Either the next day or the day after, he was taken to the Diyarbakır provincial gendarmerie command where he was made to lie, double-blindfolded, on a cement floor. There were other detainees, including the applicant Mehmet Selim Kurbanoğlu, but nobody really talked to each other except in short whispers. 1 the National Liberation Front of Kurdistan - the political wing of the PKK