The applicant, Behçet Avşar, a Turkish national, is the brother of the late Mehmet Şerif Avşar. The case concerns, principally, the events between 22 April and 7 May 1994, when Mehmet Şerif Avşar who had been taken away by armed men was found killed outside Diyarbakır. Mehmet Şerif Avşar was abducted by five village guards and Mehmet Mehmetoğlu. The guards had been sent to Diyarbakır by the Hazro gendarmes to take part in the apprehension of four other suspects. A seventh man also appeared on the scene, who acted with authority as a member of the security forces. The seven men brought Mehmet Şerif Avşar back to the gendarmerie at Saraykapı, where their presence would have been known to the gendarmes. After a while, Mehmet Mehmetoğlu, the seventh man and two of the guards took Mehmet Şerif Avşar out of Diyarbakır.
Despite the complaints of the Avşar family, Mehmet Mehmetoğlu and the five village guards were allowed to return to their homes. They were only taken into custody on or about 5 May 1994. Their statements made no reference to any seventh person, minimised their contacts with the gendarmes and the official nature of the visit to Diyarbakır and were stereotyped. No steps were taken to identify, question or locate the seventh person who had been at the gendarmerie with Mehmet Şerif Avşar and the village guards. His identity, in the circumstances, was likely to have been known to at least some of the gendarmes at the station.
The body of Mehmet Şerif Avşar was found on 7 May 1994, outside Diyarbakır. There was no precise dating as to when he died nor any analysis of marks to verify if he had been ill-treated before his death.
An investigation was effectively conducted by the Saraykapı station commander, which ended on 9 May 1994. The public prosecutor took no further investigatory steps concerning the seventh person, relying in the indictment on the accounts of the village guards. On 5 July 1994, the five village guards appeared before the court and retracted their initial statements, supporting the family’s account that a seventh person, a security officer, had been involved. Some four years later, an individual Gültekin Şütçü, an army specialist sergeant, was identified as possibly being that person. He had disappeared abroad.
Five years, ten months after the commencement of the proceedings, one of the guards was convicted of murder and Mehmet Mehmetoğlu and the other four were convicted of abduction. They were sentenced to 20 years and six years and eight month’s imprisonment respectively.
The applicant complained that his brother was arbitrarily killed while in the custody of security officials and that there was a failure by the authorities to protect his life and to carry out an effective investigation into his killing, in violation of Article 2. Relying on Article 3, he also alleged that his brother had been the victim of serious human rights violations on the basis of racial discrimination. He further relied on Articles 6 and 13 concerning the investigation and criminal trial conducted into his brother’s death and alleged that his brother and family had been victims of discrimination contrary to Article 14.
Citation: Avsar v Turkey (App no 25657/94) ECHR 10 July 2001
(from the official press-release prepared by the Registry Office of the European Court of Human Rights)