CASE OF BAYRAM KOÇ v. TURKEY
Violation of Article 6+6-3-c - Right to a fair trial (Article 6 - Criminal proceedings;Article 6-1 - Fair hearing) (Article 6 - Right to a fair trial;Article 6-3-c - Defence through legal assistance)
Jon Fridrik Kjølbro;Ledi Bianku;Nebojša Vučinić;Paul Lemmens;Robert Spano
6. The applicant was born in 1980 and lives in Diyarbakır. 7. On 17 January 2003 the applicant was arrested and taken into police custody on suspicion of membership of an illegal organisation. 8. On 18 January 2003 his statements were taken by the police in the absence of a lawyer. The applicant confessed to being a member of an illegal organisation. He gave a detailed account of its structure and his acts within the illegal organisation. On the same day the applicant was heard by a public prosecutor and an investigating judge respectively. In these statements to the public prosecutor and the investigating judge, he denied his police statements and argued that they had been taken under duress. Following his questioning, the investigating judge ordered that the applicant be held on remand. 9. On 28 January 2003 a public prosecutor at the Istanbul State Security Court filed an indictment with that court, charging the applicant under Article 146 of the former Criminal Code. 10. State Security Courts were later abolished by Law no. 5190 of 16 June 2004, and the case was transferred to the Istanbul Assize Court. 11. On 10 June 2008 the Istanbul Assize Court found that, inter alia, on the basis of the applicant’s statements to the police, the public prosecutor and the investigating judge, the applicant had committed the offence under Article 314 of the Criminal Code and sentenced him to two years and one month’s imprisonment. 12. On 27 May 2009 the applicant’s lawyer appealed against the judgment, arguing that the applicant had been convicted on the basis of statements taken under duress. 13. On 3 March 2010 the Court of Cassation upheld the judgment of the first-instance court.