ÇAKICI v. TURKEY JUDGMENT 8 33. By letter dated 14 March 1995, Hazro public prosecutor Mustafa Turhan requested that the Lice public prosecutors investigate whether Mustafa Engin and Tahsin Demirbaş were detained by the gendarmes on 8 November 1993, and that they seek observations from Mustafa Engin concerning Ahmet Çakıcı, who was alleged to have disappeared in custody. 34. By letter dated 14 April 1995, Hazro public prosecutor Mustafa Turhan requested the Hazro district gendarmerie command urgently to inform him concerning the operation carried out in Çitlibahçe on 8 November 1993 and to investigate and establish whether Ahmet Çakıcı had been detained along with Mustafa Engin, Abdurrahman Al and Tahsin Demirbaş. 35. By letter dated 17 May 1995, the Hazro district gendarmerie command informed the Hazro public prosecutor in reply that the operation on 8 November 1993 had been intended to capture members of the PKK and those aiding and abetting them and that their records indicated that Ahmet Çakıcı, Mustafa Engin, Abdurrahman Al and Tahsin Demirbaş had not been detained. 36. By letter dated 22 May 1995, the Hazro public prosecutor requested the Hazro district gendarmerie command as a matter of urgency to establish the whereabouts of Ahmet Çakıcı. 37. By letter dated 23 June 1995 to the Hazro public prosecutor, the district gendarmerie command at Hazro referred to the prosecutor’s enquiry dated 22 May 1995 about the whereabouts of Ahmet Çakıcı and to the letter dated 1 March 1995 from the Diyarbakır provincial gendarmerie command. It stated that Ahmet Çakıcı had been a member of the PKK. Following an operation carried out at Kıllıboğan Hill on 17-19 February which resulted in the deaths of fifty-six terrorists, Ahmet Çakıcı’s identity was established by the identity card located amongst the documents found on the body of a terrorist. It was concluded that he was one of the terrorists. 38. By letter dated 27 June 1995, the Hazro public prosecutor informed the Diyarbakır Attorney-General, in reference to their letter of 1 December 1994 and the letter of the Ministry of Justice of 18 August 1994, that an operation had been carried out on 8 November 1993 in order to apprehend members of the PKK and those assisting them and that Ahmet Çakıcı, Mustafa Engin and Tahsin Demirbaş had not been detained as claimed. Referring to the letter of 23 June 1995 above, it was stated that Ahmet Çakıcı was a member of the PKK and found dead during operations carried out in the Kıllıboğan Hill region, Hani district, on 17-19 February 1995. The Lice public prosecutor had been requested to obtain a statement from Mustafa Engin, a response to which was still awaited. 39. By letter dated 4 July 1995, the Hazro public prosecutor’s office informed the Ministry of Justice (Directorate of International Law and Foreign Affairs) of the information provided by the Hazro gendarmes