İLHAN v. TURKEY JUDGMENT
27
of the incident and the average male life expectancy in Turkey, and that as a
farmer he earned GBP 339.81 (TRL 280,000,000) per month at 1999 values,
he claimed, for loss of earnings, the capitalised sum of GBP 70,952.32.
His overall claim for pecuniary damage totalled GBP 89,156.59.
108. The Government submitted that there was no violation to be
compensated. Any just satisfaction should not exceed reasonable limits or
lead to unjust enrichment.
109. The Court observes that there is a direct causal link between the
injuries which it has found were inflicted on Abdüllatif İlhan in breach of
Article 3 and the past medical expenses and loss of earnings which the
applicant claims on his behalf. The Government have not queried the
amount claimed by the applicant, beyond submitting that such sums should
not be unreasonable. Having regard, therefore, to the detailed submissions
by the applicant concerning these elements, which included the actuarial
basis of calculation of the appropriate capital sum to reflect the loss of
income due to Abdüllatif İlhan's injuries, the Court awards the sum of GBP
80,600, such sum to be paid to the applicant to be held on behalf of
Abdüllatif İlhan. It does not award any sum in respect of alleged future
medical expenses, in respect of which no supporting details have been
provided and which must therefore be regarded as largely speculative.
B. Non-pecuniary damage
110. The applicant claimed, referring, inter alia, to the severity of the
violations and the need for an inducement to observe legal standards to give
effective expression to the function of the Court in upholding the public
order of Europe, GBP 40,000 for the non-pecuniary damage suffered by
Abdüllatif İlhan and GBP 2,500 for himself on account of the violation of
Article 13 which he had suffered.
111. The Government submitted that any just satisfaction should not
exceed reasonable limits or lead to unjust enrichment.
112. The Court has found above that the applicant suffered severe, lifethreatening injury at the hands of gendarmes which amounted to torture
contrary to Article 3 of the Convention. It also found that there had been a
failure to provide an effective remedy in this respect. Noting the awards
made in previous cases from south-east Turkey concerning these provisions
(see, for example, concerning Article 3, the Aksoy judgment cited above,
pp. 2289-90, § 113, the Aydın judgment cited above, p. 1903, § 131, the
Tekin judgment cited above, pp. 1521-22, § 77, Çakıcı v. Turkey [GC],
no. 23657/94, § 130, ECHR 1999-IV, and Mahmut Kaya cited above, § 138)
and having regard to the circumstances of this case, the Court has decided to
award the sum of GBP 25,000 in total in respect of non-pecuniary damage
to be held by the applicant for his brother Abdüllatif İlhan.