6.  The applicants were born in 1964, 1968 and 1968 respectively and live in Adana. 7.  According to intelligence gathered by Adana Police Headquarters, members of an illegal organisation called Ekim (October) were going to distribute posters and put up banners in protest against redundancies and price rises. The police felt that these activities were intended to provoke the public and informed its anti-terrorist department. This department planned an operation to apprehend members of Ekim and also to seize organisational documents. According to official documents in the file, the operation started at 12.30 a.m. on 12 May 1996. 8.  According to the applicants, however, they were all arrested at 11.00 p.m. on 11 May 1996. Ülkü Doğan, the first applicant, was arrested by members of the anti-terrorist department when he was on his way home, Celal Yalçıtas, the second applicant, was arrested at a house in Adana and the third applicant, Servet Çolak, was arrested at a friend's house. A large number of documents, containing articles protesting against issues such as torture in police custody, disappearances and unequal division of income, were also seized during these arrests. 9.  According to the official reports of the apprehension and seizure, drawn up and signed by the police officers who conducted this operation, these arrests were effected on 12 May 1996. Also according to these reports, neither the second nor the third applicant put up any resistance at their arrests. 10.  On 13 May 1996, the chief of the anti-terrorist department of Adana police asked the Adana public prosecutor to authorise the applicants' detention in police custody for a period of 15 days. On the same day, the prosecutor, pursuant to Article 9 of Law No. 2845 and Article 30 of Law No. 3842, acceded to this request. 11.  The applicants submit that in the course of their police custody they were subjected to various types of torture. In particular, they were hung from their arms, given electric shocks to various parts of their bodies, kept naked under or on big slabs of ice, beaten up, hosed with cold water, insulted, prevented from sleeping and threatened with death. 12.  On 23 May 1996 the applicants were taken to the Adana branch of the Forensic Medicine Institute, where they were examined and medical reports were drawn up. In the medical report relating to the first applicant, cuts which had formed scabs were observed on both wrists and on the right ankle. The medical report drawn up in relation to the second applicant states that there were cuts on both arms as well as a cut below the left knee all of which had healed. The third applicant's medical report states that there was a cut below the right knee and two cuts in the vertebral region, all of which had healed. 13.  On the same day, 23 May 1996, the applicants were brought before the Adana public prosecutor, who sent them to the Fourth Chamber of the Criminal Court of Peace in Adana. Before the Justice of the Peace of that Chamber, the applicants denied the accusations against them and complained that they had made their statements under torture. They were detained on remand, under Article 104 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, on the grounds of the state of the evidence and the nature of the offence of which they stood accused, which could be classified as a serious crime. The applicants were not represented by a lawyer before the Justice of the Peace. 14.  On 3 June 1996 the Chief Prosecutor of the National Security Court in Konya prepared an indictment submitting that the applicants and five other persons were guilty of membership of the armed terrorist organisation Ekim pursuant to Article 168 § 2 of the Turkish Criminal Code and also Article 5 of Law No. 3713. 15.  During the proceedings before the Konya National Security Court the applicants informed the Court that they had been tortured in custody. 16.  On 26 November 1996 the National Security Court in Konya held that the applicants had aided Ekim by making propaganda and it sentenced them to ten months' imprisonment and a fine of 41,666,666 Turkish Liras. Taking into account the time they had already spent in detention, they were immediately released. 17.  The applicants appealed against this judgment. The Ninth Chamber of the Criminal Division of the Court of Cassation upheld the decision of the Konya National Security Court on 4 March 1999. 18.  The public prosecutor has not taken any action with regard to the applicants' claims brought forward in the proceedings before the Justice of the Peace, that they were tortured during custody.