ELCI AND OTHERS v. TURKEY JUDGMENT 81 evidence against him and disputed a fabricated search report of his home (paragraph 490 above) in which a note with an “ERNK” stamp on it had purportedly been found. He alleged that his statement to the gendarmes had been extracted under torture, contrary to Article 135a of the Code of Criminal Procedure, and that the whole case was based on an intolerance of defence lawyers before the court. 541. Vedat Erten lodged a separate objection to his arrest, detention and remand in custody with the State Security Court Prosecutor for submission to that court, and requested bail. He alleged, inter alia, that he had been treated shamefully in the custody of the gendarmes for 18 days (17 days according to official records), being interrogated with illegal and inhuman practices which led him to sign documents, the contents of which he repudiated. Despite the general awareness of the round-up of the Diyarbakır lawyers at that time, strangely enough all of them were purportedly found with compromising documents on them. 542. The Diyarbakır provincial gendarmerie commander submitted to the State Security Court a global statement which included, inter alia, the following elements: - Tahir Elçi had been in contact with PKK members in the mountains, providing them with weapons, and had liaised between Cizre and Diyarbakır; - Nevzat Kaya confessed to being a PKK courier and had procured clothing which he had given to Mr Güven, as well as two micro-tapes; - Şinasi Tur had confessed to being a PKK courier, and had harboured an injured PKK member and, when he died, helped in the disposal of the body; - a note had been sent by the “YRWK” (the intellectuals' wing of the PKK) which had been found on Sabahattin Acar; - Niyazi Çem had been a courier and had transported heroin for a PKK member to İstanbul; - Mehmet Selim Kurbanoğlu acknowledged his involvement as a PKK courier and regional representative, and in the disposal of the body of a deceased PKK member; - Meral Danis Beştaş admitted that she was a PKK courier, and had faxed PKK materials to Europe through the Human Rights Association which had defamed the Turkish State; she had given information to the PKK about a particular Public Prosecutor whom it was planned to assassinate and had been found in possession of a “YWRK” document called “BANG”; - Mesut Beştaş had confessed to being a courier; he had defended PKK members, had had a PKK note on him when apprehended and had sent PKK people to the mountains; - Vedat Erten had been a PKK courier and had been found with a note on him from a prisoner; - Baki Demırhan had admitted that he was a PKK courier and that he had tried to smuggle a flick knife into prison;