5.  The applicant was born in 1964 and lives in Antalya.
6.  On 3 July 2004 the Samsun gendarmerie received a telephone call about a woman who had been heard crying for help in a white civilian car heading out of the city. On the basis of the information received, the gendarmerie located the car, which was being driven by the applicant, a police officer, in an isolated area outside the city. According to the incident report drawn up by the gendarmerie, the woman, identified as Ç.V., was crying when they approached the car and said that she had been kidnapped and beaten up by the applicant. There was blood around her mouth. Following preliminary evaluations at the place of the incident, both parties were taken to the gendarmerie station for their official statements. On the way to the station the applicant, who had been allowed to drive his own car, was caught trying to get rid of a knife, a hatchet and a mobile phone that he was hiding in the car. These articles were confiscated by the gendarmerie as evidence, along with a gun, duct tape, a rope, a bloodstained towel, handcuffs and a truncheon found in the applicant’s car in a subsequent search.
7.  Upon arrival at the gendarmerie station, Ç.V. was at once brought before the Samsun Public Prosecutor, where she stated that she had been having an extra-marital affair with the applicant for a while, but wanted to break the relationship off because of his constant threats and pressure; that she had agreed to meet the applicant earlier that day to talk for one last time, but that after meeting in his car, the applicant had driven her out of the city without her consent, hit her in the stomach with a truncheon and beaten her, tied her hands with a rope, and threatened to assault her sexually.
8.  In his statement to the public prosecutor, the applicant admitted that he had started seeing Ç.V. two years before to help her through her divorce, including financially. However, over time Ç.V. had become very demanding and aggressive, and had threatened to expose their relationship and spread lies about him numerous times. He denied the allegation that he had kidnapped Ç.V. and claimed that it was she who had wanted to meet. He claimed that after they had met in the car she had demanded more money from him, started screaming and threatened to shoot herself, put on his police handcuffs and exhibited other “mentally unstable behaviour”, which had prompted him to hit her. She had then kissed him to calm him down and offered to have sexual intercourse, which he had rejected as she was menstruating.
9.  On 12 July 2004 the Forensic Medicine Institute issued its report in relation to Ç.V., which recorded a 0.5 cm cut on her tongue, a red ecchymosis of 3 cm x 2 cm on the right side of her neck, a red lesion on her upper right chest, and pain in her left thumb. The report concluded that the injuries sustained had rendered Ç.V. unfit for work for seven days.
10.  On the same day Ç.V. submitted a written statement to the Samsun Public Prosecutor, confessing that she had misrepresented the facts and had falsely accused the applicant in her prior statements because she had been upset with him; that she had not been kidnapped as previously alleged; and that the applicant had only hit her while they were quarrelling and had done her no other harm.
11.  Later the same day the public prosecutor summoned Ç.V. to seek an explanation in person. This time, Ç.V. claimed that she had submitted the written statement under duress and that her initial accusations had been truthful.
12.  On 16 September 2004 the Samsun Public Prosecutor filed a bill of indictment with the Samsun Assize Court against the applicant, charging him with attempted rape, false imprisonment and robbery.
13.  During the criminal proceedings before the Samsun Assize Court, Ç.V. maintained her allegations against the applicant, save for the attempted sexual assault. She claimed in this connection that although the applicant had said he would rape her, had taken off his pants and had told her to get undressed, he had never actually attempted to assault her sexually. The applicant, on the other hand, continued to deny the accusations against him. As evidence of the financial pressure he had received from Ç.V., the applicant submitted to the trial court copies of her phone bills, which she had given him for payment.
14.  The gendarmerie commander testified before the assize court that when they arrived at the scene of the incident Ç.V. was crying and looked frightened; she had handcuff marks on her hand and nail scratches on her neck. The applicant was sitting next to Ç.V. in his undershirt. He added here that it was a hot day. When he asked them what was going on, the applicant tried to brush over the matter lightly, while Ç.V. pointed to her bleeding mouth and signalled a gun with her hand. Upon his demand, the applicant retrieved the gun from the boot and handed it over to the commander. Ç.V. then told the commander that the applicant had kidnapped her and would have raped her if she were not menstruating or if the gendarmerie had not intervened.
15.  Based on the statements from the parties and witnesses, as well as other information in the case file, the Samsun Assize Court acquitted the applicant on 21 March 2006 of the charges of false imprisonment and robbery. As for the charge of attempted rape, the assize court held that the applicant had not attempted to rape Ç.V. However, his conduct underlying that charge had in fact constituted assault and battery, on which grounds the assize court ordered his conviction. The operative part of the judgment read:
“The applicant is acquitted of the charge of false imprisonment as the elements of the crime were not fulfilled since Ç.V. had consented to meet the applicant and get into his car.
The applicant is acquitted of the charge of robbery since the elements of the crime could not be proven; and notwithstanding Ç.V.’s allegations, there was no evidence in the case file that could reasonably and beyond any doubt prove that the applicant committed such an act.
As far as the charge of attempted rape is concerned, the court finds it established that the applicant was infuriated with Ç.V. on account of the latter’s wish to break up with him and therefore assaulted Ç.V. In the light of the facts, the applicant is convicted of the offence of assault and battery and not on the charge of attempted rape, as was previously and wrongly characterised.”
16.  Both the applicant and Ç.V. appealed against the judgment of the Samsun Assize Court. However, in her appeal Ç.V. did not contest the absence of a conviction on the charge of attempted rape.
17.  On 17 September 2012 the Court of Cassation quashed the judgment of the Assize Court on the ground that the five-year limit for the offence of assault and battery had expired, and ordered the discontinuation of the criminal proceedings against the applicant on that basis. It upheld the applicant’s acquittal for the remaining charges.
18.  Parallel to the criminal proceedings pending before the Samsun Assize Court, the General Security Directorate of the Ministry of the Interior initiated disciplinary proceedings against the applicant in relation to the incidents of 3 July 2004.
19.  The Samsun Police Disciplinary Council, which was in charge of the disciplinary investigation, asked for the applicant’s written defence, which he supplied on 29 November 2004, and concluded on 16 December 2004 that it had been established that the applicant had committed the offences of false imprisonment, attempted rape and threatening violence with a weapon, and transferred the case to the Supreme Disciplinary Council of the General Security Directorate (“the Supreme Disciplinary Council”) for a decision on the applicant’s dismissal from the police force in accordance with the provisions of section 8 § 6 of the Disciplinary Regulations of the Security Forces (“the Disciplinary Regulations”).
20.  Basing itself largely on the evidence available in the criminal investigation file, on 15 February 2005 the Supreme Disciplinary Council found it established that the applicant had committed the offences of attempted rape, assault and threatening violence with a weapon, and ordered his dismissal from the police force as requested.
21.  The applicant submitted an objection to this decision to the Samsun Administrative Court. He argued, inter alia, that the complainant’s allegations against him were contradictory and that the criminal proceedings on the same charges were still pending before the Samsun Assize Court.
22.  On 29 September 2005 the Samsun Administrative Court upheld the dismissal decision of the Disciplinary Council as lawful. The administrative court opined that Ç.V.’s initial statements to the gendarmerie, along with her medical report and the articles confiscated from the applicant’s car on the date of the incident, some of which he had attempted to hide from the gendarmerie, constituted sufficient evidence to hold that the applicant had committed the acts of attempted rape, false imprisonment and threatening with a weapon held against him, although there were no witnesses to corroborate Ç.V.’s allegations. The relevant part of the judgment read:
“The acts of ... rape, attempted rape and robbery listed in section 8 § 6 of the Disciplinary Regulations are types of conduct that carry the sanction of dismissal from the civil service ...
The applicant is prosecuted in relation to the events that took place on 3 July 2004 and he is accused of attempted rape, false imprisonment and threatening Ç.V. with a weapon. Based on the criminal case file and the disciplinary investigation report, it is understood that the applicant and Ç.V. had been involved in a sexual relationship for two years, which later became a subject of blackmail for both parties. The victim, Ç.V., alleged that the applicant had brought her to the crime scene against her will and forced her to have intercourse with him while handcuffing her hands, taping her mouth closed, and threatening her with a gun, a knife and a hatchet. Although the applicant has denied these allegations, the fact that the weapons and tools used in the assault were found and confiscated at the crime scene, and that the victim’s injuries were corroborated by a medical report, and finally the fact that the applicant tried to conceal evidence, led the disciplinary authorities to rely on the victim’s version of the events, despite the fact that there were no witnesses to corroborate the victim’s allegations.
In the present dispute, it can be concluded that the applicant had a relationship with Ç.V. for two years. Notwithstanding the fact that the victim and the applicant gave different accounts of the events and that the specific allegations were not corroborated by witnesses, the court notes, on the basis of the preliminary investigation report of the Samsun Prosecutor’s Office, that an anonymous caller notified the authorities that a cry for help came from a white Şahin type civilian type vehicle in the vicinity of Alanlı Village, and that the applicant and Ç.V. were later spotted by the gendarmerie close to that area, sitting in a similar car. The crime scene report indicated that a search was carried out in the applicant’s car following Ç.V.’s complaint and that a gun, a knife, a hatchet, handcuffs, a truncheon, duct tape, rope and a bloodstained blue towel were found.
The victim’s injuries were also documented by a medical report ...
In this respect, the court takes the view that the applicant committed the acts he was accused of, basing its view on the consideration that the applicant was with Ç.V. in his car, that Ç.V. stated to the gendarme that she was being held against her will, and that during the search the gendarmerie found and confiscated a pistol, knife, hatchet, rope and a towel stained with blood, and that the applicant tried to conceal other weapons from the authorities.
Therefore, the disciplinary offence of which the applicant was accused and the corresponding sanction he received cannot be deemed unlawful.”
23.  The applicant appealed against the judgment of the Samsun Administrative Court, drawing the attention of the appeal court to the fact that he had in the meantime been acquitted of the criminal charges of false imprisonment, robbery and attempted rape by the Samsun Assize Court, and that his conviction for assault and battery would not in itself justify his expulsion from public service under the terms of the Disciplinary Regulations.
24.  By its decision of 10 April 2007 the Supreme Administrative Court rejected the applicant’s arguments, holding that according to Section 131 of Law no. 657 on Public Service, an acquittal in respect of criminal charges did not preclude the imposition of disciplinary sanctions on the same facts. The relevant part of the judgment read:
“The applicant asked the court to quash the decision to dismiss him from the police service and to overturn the decision of Samsun Administrative Court upholding his dismissal on the grounds that he had been acquitted of the criminal charges of false imprisonment, robbery, and attempted rape by the first-instance court, and that the charges of assault and battery on which he was convicted did not constitute conduct that attracted the penalty of dismissal from service. Be that as it may, since exoneration from criminal liability, or lack thereof, does not preclude the imposition of disciplinary sanctions by virtue of section 131 of Law no. 657 on Public Service, the present application must be rejected.”
25.  This decision was served on the applicant on 12 July 2007.
26.  On unspecified dates, but after the introduction of his complaint to the Court, the applicant brought separate proceedings against the Ministry of Interior and the Governor of Samsun before the Samsun Administrative Court and requested the rectification of his civil servant record and the reopening of proceedings with respect to his dismissal from the police force. The applicant relied on the Court of Cassation’s judgment of 17 September 2012, acquitting him of the charges of false imprisonment and robbery and discontinuing the proceedings in respect of battery and assault, and argued before the Samsun Administrative Court that his right to presumption of innocence had been violated in the course of the dismissal proceedings because he had been dismissed on the basis of allegations that he had committed offences in respect of which the criminal proceedings had not yet become final. The Samsun Administrative Court declared both applications inadmissible, on 11 December and 27 December 2012 respectively, holding that none of the reasons put forth by the applicant for the reopening of the proceedings fell within the exhaustive list of permissible grounds for this extraordinary remedy.
27.  On 6 March 2013 the applicant appealed against the decision of the Samsun Administrative Court of 27 December 2012 before the Supreme Administrative Court.
28.  On 10 February 2014, the Supreme Administrative Court rejected the applicant’s appeal request, endorsing the reasons given in the judgment of the Samsun Administrative Court of 27 December 2012.