CASE OF B.A.C. v. GREECE
Violation of Article 8 - Right to respect for private and family life (Article 8 - Positive obligations;Article 8-1 - Respect for private life);Violation of Article 13+8 - Right to an effective remedy (Article 13 - Effective remedy) (Article 8-1 - Respect for private life;Article 8 - Right to respect for private and family life;Positive obligations);Violation of Article 3+13 - Prohibition of torture (Article 3 - Extradition) (Article 13 - Effective remedy;Right to an effective remedy) (Conditional) (Turkey);Non-pecuniary damage - award (Article 41 - Non-pecuniary damage;Just satisfaction)
Aleš Pejchal;Armen Harutyunyan;Kristina Pardalos;Linos-Alexandre Sicilianos;Mirjana Lazarova Trajkovska;Robert Spano
5. The applicant was born in 1977 and lives in Athens. 6. While studying in Turkey (1994-1999) the applicant had become a pro-communist and proKurdish political activist. In 1997 he opened a literary café, which was frequented by individuals favourable to such a political stance. In 2000 the Turkish police arrested the applicant, and he was prosecuted for infringing State constitutional order (Article 146 of the Turkish Criminal Code). The applicant was also held in the “white (isolation) cells” in Kandra Prison. He went on hunger strike for 171 days, causing him to develop Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, a pathology which can cause irreversible damage to health and prove fatal. Given the threat to the applicant’s life, the Turkish authorities decided to release him. 7. In 2002 the applicant fled to Greece, where he submitted an asylum application on 15 January 2002. On 18 February 2002 the General Secretary of the Ministry of Public Order, adjudicating at first instance, rejected that application, giving summary reasons. 8. On 21 March 2002 the applicant appealed to the Ministry of Public Order against that decision. On 29 January 2003, having been summoned to attend the Advisory Board on Asylum, he presented the latter with a number of documents showing that he had suffered torture in Turkey on account of his political opinions, including a medical report drawn up by the Greek Medical Centre for the Rehabilitation of Torture Victims and an Amnesty International document. On the same day the Advisory Board on Asylum issued a favourable opinion in respect of the applicant. 9. Further to that favourable opinion, under Article 3 § 5 of Presidential Decree No. 61/1999 (on the procedure for the examination of asylum applications), the Minister for Public Order should have taken a decision within twenty-four hours on whether or not to grant the applicant international protection. However, by the date on which the application was referred to the Court, the Minister had not taken any decision and therefore had neither ratified nor rejected the Board’s opinion. 10. Between 2003 and 2015 the applicant lived in Athens and attended the police station every six months in order to renew his asylum-seeker’s card. Under domestic law that card did not constitute a residence permit and therefore did not secure all the attendant rights: it only allowed the asylum-seeker not to be expelled and to reside in the national territory with “tolerated status” while his application was being examined. More specifically, under domestic law the asylum-seeker was not entitled to engage in an occupation, undertake vocational training, marry, obtain a driving licence, hold a bank account or apply for family reunion. 11. In 2003, while he was living in Athens, the applicant was joined by his wife from Turkey. However, her presence in Greece only became lawful in 2008, when she obtained a short-term work permit. In 2010 the couple had a son. In 2011 the applicant’s wife returned to Istanbul with the child owing to health problems. The couple divorced in 2012. 12. Meanwhile, on 5 August 2005, the Turkish Interpol Office had issued an extradition request in respect of the applicant. That request had been based on accusations similar to those used in 2000 which had been assessed by the Greek authorities during the examination of his asylum application. 13. On 12 March 2013 the applicant was arrested in Patras. On 26 March 2013 the indictment division of Patras Court of Appeal examined the extradition request and unanimously decided to reject it. The division based its decision on the risk run by the applicant of suffering ill-treatment on account of his political opinions, should he be extradited. It further noted that the nature of the offences for which extradition had been requested had only been described vaguely and abstractly in the request submitted by the Turkish authorities. ... 14. On 27 March 2013 the public prosecutor appealed to the Court of Cassation against the decision of the indictment division of Patras Court of Appeal. 15. On 26 April 2013 the Court of Cassation upheld the impugned decision. 16. The applicant had meanwhile been actively seeking to secure a final decision. He had written to the Ombudsman of the Republic on 21 March and 25 June 2012, and to the Minister for Public Order on 19 November 2013, 16 June 2014 and 27 February 2015. 17. Furthermore, it emerged from correspondence among a number of different authorities (between police authorities and between the police and other authorities) on 23 February 2007, 16 October 2012, 14 November 2012 and 28 January 2015, that the applicant’s asylum application was still pending before the Minister for Public Order. ...