ELCI AND OTHERS v. TURKEY JUDGMENT 37 14. Gazanfer Abbasioğlu 249. Mr Abbasioğlu was born in 1967 and was a practising lawyer in Diyarbakır at the material time. 250. On or around 15 November 1993, coming out of the State Security Court, he and several colleagues were subjected to an identity check. Several lawyers had previously been taken into custody and, that day, others were detained, but not the applicant. 251. On 30 November 1993 he was at a colleague's office when plainclothed policemen and gendarme officers entered and checked his identity. He was told he was being taken into custody. He was taken by gendarmes to see a doctor. He was then taken somewhere, blindfolded, where he realised there were some of his colleagues. He was not given any reason for his detention until a couple of hours later, when he was accused of being a member of and assisting the PKK. He denied the allegations. 252. He had known earlier that Abdülhakim Güven had become a confessor; it was then that the arrests had started. He had met Mr Güven as a prisoners' representative who was present when the applicant interviewed a client accused of political offences. Whilst blindfolded, he was confronted with Mr Güven during his first interrogation. He recognised his voice. He was accused of being a member of and assisting the PKK, and of constantly defending PKK cases. 253. On release and after examining his case file, he realised more detailed false allegations had been made, such as that of being a courier. 254. The applicant signed certain documents under duress in order to avoid being tortured as Tahir Elçi, Meral Daniş Beştaş, Niyazi Çem and Hüsniye Ölmez had been. He did not know the contents of those documents at that point as he had been blindfolded. 255. After being technically released by the Judge, he and his colleagues were subjected to a warning speech by the gendarme regional commander, Eşref Hatipoğlu. The applicant understood the speech as a threat. It was only then that he was actually released. 15. Fuat Hayri Demır 256. Mr Demır was born in 1967 and was a practising lawyer in Diyarbakır at the material time. 257. Mr Demir was leaving the Diyarbakır State Security Court at lunchtime on 3 December 1993 with a colleague when he was stopped by two people in plain-clothes who checked their identity. They said they were from the gendarmerie intelligence unit. After confirming the applicant's identity, he was told that he was to be taken into custody.