ELCI AND OTHERS v. TURKEY JUDGMENT
46
21. Hasan Bozoğlu
317. Mr Bozoğlu was born in 1948 and at the material time he was the
law and order director of the Diyarbakır provincial gendarmerie command.
He supervised, inter alia, the interrogation unit.
318. The detention centre in Diyarbakır could hold around 20 people in
individual cells with peepholes for surveillance. The floors had wooden
grids and collapsible beds. Blankets were provided. There was lighting and
heating in the corridors which filtered into the cells. People were taken to
the toilet according to their needs and there was a bathroom. Interrogations
were held in a special room. Breakfast and lunch were offered, possibly
below the standard soldier rations, but a full evening meal was provided.
319. The custody records were accurate; the 45 people mentioned in the
record would not all have been held at the centre. They would have been in
the attached units (of which there were around 17). Interrogations were
performed by individual, trained specialists accompanied by a typist. In
important cases, interrogations were recorded. The detainee was not
blindfolded.
320. Mr Bozoğlu had never met any of the applicants. Reports were
made to him and he had never heard any allegations of ill-treatment. He had
not been involved in the decision to detain them, nor had he seen them on
their release. They would not have been blindfolded on their way from the
court to the detention centre after their release in order to fetch their
personal belongings.
321. Mr Bozoğlu was unable to say whether the law required that an
interrogator put his name to a statement rather than just his service code
number, as had occurred in the present case.
22. Mithat Gül
322. Mr Gül was born in 1960 and was the gendarme captain and
commander of the district centre of Diyarbakır at the material time. He had
been under the direct orders of Mr Hatipoğlu.
323. Based on information from a confessor, Abdülhakim Güven, the
gendarmerie obtained the Prosecutor's permission to detain the 16 lawyers.
The regiment commander, the Public Prosecutor at the State Security Court
and the Provincial Governor were aware of that authorisation. When people
were taken into custody, the Public Prosecutor was contacted to determine
the length of the detention period. Nobody could be taken into custody
without the Prosecutor's knowledge and approval. His verbal instructions on
the matter were equivalent to an order, but the instructions would be later
recorded in written form. It was the decision of the Public Prosecutor to
detain the applicants in the present case. A record would have been kept
indicating the name of the person who had informed the Prosecutor and had