The ineffective investigation of the authorities regarding the causes of death and injuries unarmed civilians by gunfire is a violation of the right to life
JUDGMENT
Karataş and others v. Turkey 12/9/2017 (no. 46820/09)
SUMMARY
The case concerned the death of armed civilians by Turkish soldiers in southeastern Turkey in September 2007. Turkish soldiers shot and killed relatives of the applicants Bülent Karataş and seriously injured one of the applicants, Ríza Çiçek. The military justice did not prosecute both soldiers, among others, on the grounds that although Bülent Karataş and Rıza Çiçek were unarmed, there was strong suspicion that the two men were in the area to help the terrorists. The ECtHR found a violation of the right to life due to ineffective investigations by the Turkish authorities.
PROVISION
Article 2
PRINCIPAL FACTS
The applicants are ten Turkish nationals who live in Tunceli (Turkey). The case concerned an armed incident in south-eastern Turkey in September 2007. The applicants complained that soldiers had killed their relative Bülent Karataş and had severely injured one of the applicants, Rıza Çiçek, in the same incident; they maintained that the authorities had failed to conduct an effective investigation into the events.
In the late morning of 27 September 2007, near the village of Yenibaş in south-eastern Turkey, Bülent Karataş and Rıza Çiçek, who were unarmed, were hit by several bullets fired by soldiers of a military unit based in the town of Hozat. In the afternoon of the same day, they were taken by gendarmes to the military hospital in Elaziğ. Bülent Karataş died on the way to the hospital, where a post mortem examination was carried out. The doctors noted that three bullets had entered his body and that he had died from the loss of blood as a result of the wounds. They also noted a number of abrasions and a broken rib.
The Hozat public prosecutor opened an investigation on the day after the incident, after having declined to visit the scene of the incident on 27 September 2007, due to security concerns, and having instead instructed the gendarmes to secure any objects found in the area.
Six military personnel who had taken part in the operation were questioned by the public prosecutor in early October 2007; they stated that their unit had been in the area to look for members of terrorist organisations who, according to intelligence, had been transporting food supplies and equipment to their hiding places. When the soldiers came across the two men on 27 September 2007, they had asked them to stop, but the men had disobeyed and had started running down a hill.
The soldiers had fired in the air and repeated their warning. When, at that moment, fire was opened in their direction from a river bed, they had returned fire.
According to the statements from Rıza Çiçek, who was questioned as a “suspect” by the prosecutor on 6 November 2007, he and his cousin Bülent Karataş, who was a bee-keeper, had gone to the area in question on 27 September 2007 to collect a bee colony. Their identity was checked by a group of soldiers, who then told them to leave as they were in a “terrorist area”. Bülent told the soldiers that they would finish their job and then leave. About 20 minutes later the soldiers returned; they first told them to lie on the ground and then to get up and run away. When Rıza Çiçek did so, several rounds of shots were fired in his direction and he was hit in his chest and arm.
In December 2008 the Elaziğ military prosecutor, to whom the file had in the meantime been forwarded, decided to close the investigation and not to bring criminal proceedings against the soldiers. He considered that the version of the events put forward by the military personnel was true and noted in particular that, although Bülent Karataş and Rıza Çiçek had been unarmed, there was a strong suspicion that the two men had been in the area to assist terrorists.
Rıza Çiçek and two other applicants filed an objection against the military prosecutor’s decision, maintaining that the two men had intentionally been shot by the soldiers and arguing that there had not been a thorough investigation either by the Hozat public prosecutor or by the military prosecutor, who had never actually questioned Rıza Çiçek, who was both a victim and witness. The applicants’ objection was rejected by the Malatya Military Court in March 2009.
In the meantime, Rıza Çiçek had been placed in detention on remand and charged with aiding and abetting a terrorist organisation. The trial court declined however to open proceedings and, in May 2008, ordered his release. The applicants complain of a violation of Article 2 (right to life) of the Convention in respect of Bülent Karataş and Rıza Çiçek.
THE DECISION OF THE COURT
Violation of Article 2 – in respect of Bülent Karataş’s demise and the injury caused to Rıza Çiçek
Just satisfaction: 20,000 euros (EUR) jointly to Güler Karataş, Pınar Şafak Karataş and Berdan Ulaş Karataş, for pecuniary damage; EUR 65,000 jointly to Güler Karataş, Pınar Şafak Karataş, Berdan Ulaş Karataş, Bıra Karataş, Kumru Karataş, Perince Ataş, Nebahat Ateş, Serincan Çiçek and Yıldız Deniz, for non-pecuniary damage; EUR 30,000 to Rıza Çiçek for non-pecuniary damage; and EUR 3,750 jointly to the ten applicants for costs and expenses(echrcaselaw.com editing).
