Tanis and Others v. Turkey
Legal Relevance
Keywords: Relatives as Victims | Effective Remedy | Duty to Investigate | Burden of Proof | Deprivation of Liberty | Judicial Protection
Themes: Related Crimes | Characteristics of the Crime
The Court found the State responsible for the disappearance of the two men, finding a violation of the right to life in relation to both its substantive and procedural branches. The Court further held that the victim's unexplained disappearances after having been for the last time entering a gendarmerie station constituted a particularly grave violation of their right to liberty and security.
Judgment Date
November 30, 2005
Country
Turkey
Judicial Body
European Court of Human Rights
Articles violated
Article 2 (procedural) [ECHR], Article 2 (substantive) [ECHR], Article 3 [ECHR], Article 5 [ECHR], Article 13 [ECHR], Article 38 [ECHR]
Facts of the Case
On 25 January 2001 three people purporting to be police officers attempted to force Mr. Serdar Tanış into their car. Having informed them that he would go to the gendarmerie station only if he received an official summons, he later received a call from the gendarmerie and went to the station accompanied by Mr. Ebubekir Deniz. On the same day, the families of the two men asked public authorities for information, but they were told that neither of them had attended the station or been taken into custody. Both Mr. Tanış and Mr. Deniz had already received death threats from the gendarmerie on account of their political activities as leaders of a branch of the People's Democracy Party. In February 2001 the local governor issued a written statement indicating that the two men had gone to the gendarmerie station on 25 January 2001, and then left the premises. The victims' families did not received any news of their relatives since.