4.  The applicants were born in 1980, 1980, 1981, 1983, 1980, 1983, 1978 and 1983, respectively, and live in Istanbul. They were students at various faculties attached to Istanbul University at the time of the events. The applicants were also members of a group called Istanbul University Students’ Coordination (İstanbul Üniversite Öğrencileri Koordinasyonu). 5.  On 3 October 2002 Istanbul University held its opening ceremony for the academic year 2002-2003. During the ceremony, which was attended by politicians, businessmen and the press, the applicants were forcibly removed from the conference hall by plain clothed policemen and taken to Beyazıt police station, approximately 500-600 metres away from the university[1]. 6.  According to the incident report drafted by police officers at 12.15 p.m., the events unfolded as follows. At around 11.20 a.m., while the Chancellor Mr Alemdaroğlu was speaking, some students, from the upper stage of the hall, started shouting out “Freedom to University, an end to investigations” and “Oppression will not intimidate us, decree belongs to the State and the University to us”, and raised banners and placards with similar messages. They also held up enlarged photocopies of disciplinary sanctions given to various students, including one of the applicants, Mr Haşim Özgür Ersoy. Further to a request from the Chancellor’s security adviser, the police warned the students that theirs was an unlawful demonstration and that they were breaching public order by interfering with freedom of education and instruction and disrupting the ceremony. They were asked to come to the police station. However, since the students continued their protest and shouted out “Oppression will not intimidate us”, the police, together with the private security guards of the university, intervened and arrested nineteen students, including the applicants, by using force. The applicants were taken to Beyazıt police station. 7.  At 12.15 p.m. records of the applicants’ arrest were drawn up, which they refused to sign. 8.  At 2 p.m. the applicants were medically examined by a doctor at Haseki Hospital. At 4.55 p.m. they were again examined by a doctor at the Istanbul Forensic Medicine Department. 9.  The doctor at the Haseki Hospital noted that the applicant had ecchymosed lesions in the middle of her left arm. 10.  The doctor at the Istanbul Forensic Medicine Department noted that the applicant had a bruise of 2.5 cm on the middle inside part of her left arm and another bruise of 1 cm on the lower left arm. 11.  The doctor at Haseki Hospital found that the applicant had a skin graze and redness in her lower back region. 12.  The doctor at the Istanbul Forensic Medicine Department noted, in addition to the above, a skin graze of 1 cm on the right side of her neck. It was noted that the applicant had stated that she had sustained these injuries during the upheaval on the university stairs. 13.  The doctor at the Haseki Hospital found an area of bruising and swelling on the applicant’s forehead, bruises and swelling on the nose and a skin graze on the back of the right ear. Further medical analysis did not reveal any bleeding or other problems in the nasal region. 14.  The doctor at the Istanbul Forensic Medicine Department noted the same injuries on the applicant. It was further noted that, as regards the injury on his forehead, the applicant had stated that he had been punched in the face. As to the other injuries, the applicant failed to remember how they had happened during the commotion. 15.  The doctor at Haseki Hospital observed an area of bruising on the applicant’s left arm and four to five areas of redness of 2 cm x 1 cm on the right side of his neck. 16.  The doctor at the Istanbul Forensic Medicine Department noted a 2.5 cm area of bruising on the right shoulder and on the middle of his left arm. The applicant also had a skin graze of 0.5 cm on the middle front part of the neck and a 1 cm skin graze on the right upper and lower part of the neck. 17.  The doctors who examined the applicants found no signs of ill‑treatment on their bodies. In the report drafted by the doctor at the Istanbul Forensic Medicine Institute, it was noted that Ayfer Çiçek had refused to take off her clothes for the examination, stating that she had no injuries. 18.  On the same day the applicants were brought before the Istanbul public prosecutor’s office, from where they were released. The applicants allege that they were detained in police custody for about eleven and a half hours. 19.  On 9 October 2002 the applicants filed a complaint with the Istanbul public prosecutor against the university security guards and the police on duty at the conference hall that day. In their identical complaints, the applicants claimed that, during the Chancellor’s speech, a fellow student had got up to speak and had been impeded by a plain-clothes police officer. Then the applicants had also got up and had been beaten and arrested by the police. The applicants complained that their arms had been twisted and that they had been beaten, particularly on the head. They claimed that the beating had continued outside the conference hall. In the complaints it was also stated that the intervention by the security forces was an interference with their right to freedom of expression, and that they had the right to protest against the existing anti-democratic measures and express their desire for a democratic university at the opening ceremony. They submitted that their arrest and detention had been unlawful and that the disproportionate force used against them had constituted inhuman and degrading treatment. 20.  On 4 November 2002 the Istanbul public prosecutor issued a decision not to prosecute the police officers or the university security guards. In his decision, the public prosecutor noted that the applicants had breached public order by preventing freedom of education and by disrupting the ceremony when shouting slogans and raising banners. Despite having been invited to come to the police station and to end their unlawful demonstration, they had continued. As a result 19 students had been arrested and detained in police custody using force. It was noted that some of the plaintiffs had suffered minor injuries but others had suffered none, and that the police had had to use force because they had resisted arrest. 21.  On 22 November 2002 the applicants objected to the prosecutor’s decision. In particular, they submitted that the prosecutor had relied solely on police records and had failed to hear evidence from anyone, including themselves. They further challenged the official version that they had resisted arrest, stating that they had not been given any prior warning. 22.  On 26 December 2002 the Beyoğlu Assize Court dismissed the applicants’ objections. That decision was served on them on 18 January 2003. 23.  The Government informed the Court that no criminal proceedings had been instituted against the applicants in respect of the above event.