CASE OF TAKAK v. TURKEY
Violation of Art. 6-1;Not necessary to examine Art. 6-3-d;Pecuniary damage - claim dismissed;Non-pecuniary damage - finding of violation sufficient;Costs and expenses partial award
Georg Ress
9. The applicant was born in 1966 and lives in Izmir, Turkey. 10. On 11 March 1994 the applicant was taken into custody by the officers from the Izmir Security Directorate Anti-Terror branch on suspicion of aiding and abetting an illegal terrorist organisation, the PKK. 11. On 17 March 1994 the applicant was brought before the judge at the Izmir State Security Court. Before the court she pleaded not guilty and maintained that she did not accept the statements that she had made at the Security Directorate. She further denied the testimony of a witness, A.A., against her. Subsequently, the court ordered her release on account of insufficient evidence to remand her in custody. 12. On 7 April 1994 the public prosecutor at the Izmir State Security Court filed an indictment with the court charging the applicant under Article 169 of the Criminal Code and Article 5 of Law no. 3713 (the Prevention of Terrorism Act 1991 as amended) with aiding and abetting the PKK. 13. On 24 November 1994 the Izmir State Security Court convicted the applicant as charged and sentenced her to three years and nine months' imprisonment. She was further debarred from public service for three years. The court based its judgment on the following evidence: some ammunition found by the police, various weapons and the ballistics reports confirming the applicant's use thereof, invoices, a notebook used for recording expenditures of the PKK, photos of the applicant taken with some PKK militants, the statements made by the applicant at the Security Directorate, the statements made by S.A., A.A., M.T. and F.A. at the Security Directorate, the Public Prosecutor's office and before the court and finally the testimonies of T.T., N.F., A.O., H.K. and B.O., who were being tried by the same court for charges with other offences. 14. On 25 September 1995 the Court of Cassation upheld the Izmir State Security Court's judgment of 24 November 1994. 15. On 1 November 1995 the Izmir chief public prosecutor suspended the execution of the applicant's sentence until 28 April 1996 as she had given birth. 16. The Court refers to the overview of the domestic law derived from previous submissions in other cases, in particular Özel v. Turkey (no. 42739/98, §§ 20-21, 7 November 2002) and Gençel v. Turkey (no. 53431/99, §§ 11-12, 23 October 2003).