ELCI AND OTHERS v. TURKEY JUDGMENT 73 498. The aforementioned applicants said that they had started out as lawyers who, in the course of their work and in order to earn a living, sometimes had to represent people accused of terrorist, PKK involvement. When visiting such clients in prison, the “head of the political prisoners” systematically sat in on the interview to monitor the conversation and intervene when he thought appropriate. The prison officers stated that they had left the political prisoners to organise themselves in this and other business for fear of reprisals to either themselves or their families. 499. Most of the lawyers recounted that they had not actively collaborated with the PKK or its prison members. However, some of them acknowledged that they had carried notebooks, diaries, pens and the like between prisons from one client to another. They had not inquired as to the reason or the content, knowing that it was in their best interests to remain ignorant, if they wished to continue in legal practice without reprisal from the PKK. 500. Şinasi Tur recounted, inter alia, that his brother had been a member of the PKK who had been killed. He himself had been given 5000 Deutschmarks to buy mobile telephones for a PKK member. He had also prepared some fake identity cards for that organisation. 501. Baki Demırhan said, inter alia, that the Diyarbakır lawyers like himself had been manipulated by the PKK emotionally, politically and economically. He had received instructions from the “head of the political prisoners” at the Gaziantep Prison, and he had carried notes and booklets between prisoners, to and from that prison and the Diyarbakır Prison. The defence lawyers had been instructed to set up human rights commissions within the bar associations. 502. Hüsniye Ölmez stated, inter alia, that after two years of scraping a living as a lawyer in Diyarbakır, she had had to appear as a PKK sympathiser in order to get work. She was recognised as a good lawyer, which is why the Government accused her of being a PKK member. Her family and its considerable wealth had been attacked and intimidated in an attempt to force them to pay “tax” to the PKK. She had come under pressure from the “head of the political prisoners” to act as a courier. She had once taken some belongings out of one of the prisons. 503. Vedat Erten claimed, inter alia, that he had never knowingly or overtly assisted the PKK, and that his law practice had suffered as a result. He had had a few PKK clients. 10. The records of Prosecutor Haney at the State Security Court 504. Mr Haney took statements from the applicants at the end of their detention by the gendarmes. They all rejected the charges against them and the allegations of Abdülhakim Güven, as well as claims that they had been