CAT/C/44/D/356/2008
complainant to Turkey while his communication was under consideration. On 3 October
2008, the State party informed the Committee that measures have been taken in order to
comply with the Committee’s request for interim measures.
The facts as presented by the complainant
2.1
On 4 October 1993, the complainant, his cousin, and a friend, witnessed an attack on
the village of Daltepe, near Siirt, in Turkey. From a hill near the village, they saw soldiers
in uniform approaching the village in the afternoon. According to the complainant, the
soldiers changed their uniforms to clothes used normally by the PKK groups. When it
became dark, they heard shooting and screaming from the village. According to the media
and NGOs reports, between 24 and 33 people were killed in this action. In contrast to what
the complainant and his two friends had seen, media and some NGOs presented the attack
as being committed by a rebel group.
2.2
The complainant and his friends told people in the neighbourhood what they had
seen. The authorities reacted by arresting the complainant and detaining him for forty days.
According to the complainant, he was tortured by security services during his detention.
The complainant explains that the officials dropped melting plastic on his legs and arms;
the scars are still visible 1 . He was also forced to stand on his tiptoes and to hold his chin
through a hole. While in this position, he was hit with a metal bar on the head and he
fainted as a result. Finally, the complainant claims that he had been blindfolded and
sexually abused by a soldier.
2.3
After his release, the complainant was under the control of the security forces. One
of the other two witnesses disappeared while he was doing his military service; no
information about his whereabouts is available. The second witness – the complainant’s
cousin - allegedly received a serious knock on the back of the head during his imprisonment
to the point that he had mental disorders; he had spent around seven years in prison. For all
these reasons, and due to his fear of being caught and tortured again, the complainant
decided to hide and refused to perform his military service.
2.4
In 1994 or 1995, he moved to Istanbul, where he stayed unregistered for more than
seven years without a permanent address, moving from one location to another, and
working in the building sector. After his departure, in 1994/1995, his family was under
surveillance by the security services and was questioned about his whereabouts. According
to the complainant, the security forces assumed that he had joined the PKK. His father was
allegedly tortured by authorities; he subsequently died in 1997, allegedly as a result of his
injuries. For this reason, the complainant’s mother and his four brothers and sisters also
moved to Istanbul.
2.5 The complainant adds that in the meantime, in July 2003, his uncle (and father of the
cousin who had also witnessed the 1993 attack) had died after a strange conflict with two
villagers. The complainant contends that subsequent to the 1993 attack, his uncle was also
under surveillance and was ill-treated by security forces’ agents 2 .
1
2
The complainant provides photographs of his legs and arms, which disclose a number of scars.
According to the complainant, the report on the circumstances of his uncle’s death states that his
uncle was injured but he was first transported to the police station, and was transferred to a hospital
only later, and he had died during the transportation. No explanation on the reasons not to take the
3