CAT/C/67/D/857/2017 Advance unedited version
1.1
The complainant is Cevdet Ayaz, a national of Turkey of Kurdish origin born in 1973.
At the time of submission of the communication, the complainant was at risk of extradition
to Turkey. He claimed that his extradition would amount to a violation, by Serbia, of article
3, in conjunction with article 15 of the Convention. Serbia made the declaration under article
22 of the Convention on 12 March 2001. The complainant is represented by counsel.
1.2
On 11 December 2017, the Committee, acting through its Rapporteur on new
complaints and interim measures, requested the State party to refrain from expelling the
complainant to Turkey while it considered his complaint. On 5 November 2018, the State
party advised the Committee that the Committee’s request for interim measures was not
brought to the attention of the Ministry of Justice of Serbia in time to prevent the
complainant’s extradition, as the request was delivered on 18 December 2018, while the
decision on extradition of the complainant was rendered on 15 December 2018. 1
The facts as presented by the complainant
2.1
The complainant has been a Kurdish political activist since late 1980s. After he turned
18, he became a member of People's Labour Party (HEP). He became close with the president
of the Diyarbakir branch of HEP, Mr. Vedet Aydin, who was killed by special Gendarmerie
unit on 7 July 1991. Later that year, due to an increasing violence in southeastern Turkey and
mass human rights violations committed against the Kurdish minority under the pretext of
anti-terror operations, the complainant decided to move to Iraq. There, he remained in the
city of Erbil and became a member of the Kurdish political party YEKBUN, which ceased to
exist in 1994. He remained in Iraq until 1997, when the situation in Turkey slightly improved.
The complainant claims to have never been involved in any military operation, nor ever using
any kind of weapon or other violent means for achieving his political goals. He has never
been a supporter of groups prone to violence (such as PKK) or a member of any political
party that was declared as 'illegal' or 'terrorist' by the Turkish Government.
2.2
Upon his return to Turkey, the complainant led peaceful life in Diyarbakir where he
opened a shop selling office supplies. He was not politically active, and in 2000, he went to
Malatya for the mandatory military service in the Turkish army. On 6 April 2001, when the
complainant was returning to his military base in Malatya from the granted leave, his bus
was stopped by gendarmes and anti-terror forces, and the complainant was taken to the police
station in Elazig where he was kept overnight. He was not informed about the reasons for his
detention, was not given access to a lawyer or allowed to inform his family or anyone else
about his whereabouts. The following day, he was taken to the Anti-Terror Department in
Diyarbakir where he was held incommunicado until 18 April 2001.
2.3
The treatment to which the complainant was submitted during his incommunicado
detention between 6 and 18 April 2001 included: being punched, slapped, kicked and beaten
by police batons; being kept blindfolded most of the time during the detention; being
subjected to ‘Palestinian hanging’; 2 being subjected to electric shocks applied through
genitals and nipples while he was held on the ground; being hosed with high pressured cold
water; being constantly threatened with execution or serious injury to him and his family;
being verbally abused due to his Kurdish origin.
2.4
After days of torture, the complainant was forced to sign confession papers while
blindfolded, which, as he later found out, said that he was a member and one of the leaders
of the Revolutionary Party of Kurdistan ('PSK'). After signing the confession, the
complainant was taken to a medical unit where he told the doctor that he had been tortured,
however the doctor, in presence of the police officers who tortured him, told him that he was
fine and told the officers to take him away. The complainant notes that such party does not
exist and he has never heard about it. On 18 April 2001, the complainant was brought before
the Diyarbakir court, where he was for the first time allowed to see an attorney. At the hearing,
1
2
2
The State party does not say when exactly the complainant was extradited. According to the counsels,
the complainant was extradited to Turkey on 25 December 2018.
Palestinian suspension (strappado, reverse hanging, Corda, Scorpion Position, Akrab), is a form of
suspension where the arms or wrists are tied behind the back and then attached to a horizontal bar
(https://dignity.dk/en/dignitys-work/health-team/torture-methods/suspension/).