PROCEDURE

The case originated in an application (no. 73038/01) against the Republic of Turkey lodged with the Court under Article 34 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (“the Convention”) by a Turkish national, Mr Hiyasettin Altın (“the applicant”), on 26 July 2001.

The applicant was represented by Mr E. Kanar and Ms Y. Başara, lawyers practising in Istanbul. The Turkish Government (“the Government”) did not designate an Agent for the purposes of the proceedings before the Court.

On 31 March 2004 the Court decided to communicate the application. Under the provisions of Article 29 § 3 of the Convention, it decided to examine the merits of the application at the same time as its admissibility.

The applicant filed observations on the admissibility and merits (Rule 59 § 1). The Government submitted their observations outside the time-limit. They have therefore not been admitted to the case file.

On 1 November 2004 the Court changed the composition of its Sections (Rule 25 § 1). This case was assigned to the newly composed Second Section (Rule 52 § 1).

THE FACTS

I. THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE CASE

The applicant was born in 1965 and lives in Muş.

On 11 May 1994 the applicant was arrested and placed in custody by officers from the anti-terrorism branch of the Istanbul Security Directorate on suspicion of his membership of an illegal organisation, namely the PKK (the Kurdistan Workers’ Party).

On 19 May 1994 he was brought before the public prosecutor and then the investigating judge at the Istanbul State Security Court. The same day, the investigating judge ordered the applicant’s detention on remand.

In an indictment dated 1 June 1994, the public prosecutor at the Istanbul State Security Court initiated criminal proceedings against the applicant and eleven others for being members of the PKK. The prosecutor requested that the applicant be sentenced pursuant to Article 168 § 2 of the Criminal Code and Section 5 of Law No. 3713 (the Anti-Terrorism Law).

On 29 May 1997 the applicant was convicted as charged by the Istanbul State Security Court and sentenced to twelve years and six months’ imprisonment.

On 14 December 1998 the Court of Cassation quashed the applicant’s conviction on the ground that the State Security Court had delivered its judgment without obtaining a final statement from the applicant, and thus had restricted the applicant’s defence rights. The case was remitted to the Istanbul State Security Court for a further examination and the applicant remained in custody.

On 16 March 1999 the Istanbul State Security Court held its first hearing.

In the course of the criminal proceedings the applicant made numerous submissions for his release pending trial. He claimed that he was innocent and had been held in detention on remand for an excessive period, contrary to international norms. The court dismissed his request for release at each of the nine hearings held between 11 August 1994 and 28 November 1995 without indicating any reason. At each of the thirty-five hearings held between 1 February 1996 and 17 April 2001, it dismissed the request due to “the state of the evidence and the content of the case file”.

In the meantime, the applicant’s lawyer challenged his client’s continued detention before another court. In his petition of 7 November 2000, he stated that his client had been detained for six years and six months, despite the absence of any danger that he would destroy the evidence, which had all been submitted to the case file, or that he would abscond. The court dismissed the request on similar grounds (paragraph 13 in fine above), namely “having regard to the nature of the offence, the state of the evidence and the content of the case file”.

The Istanbul State Security Court held twenty-eight more hearings before delivering its final judgment. At fifteen of them, where the court merely reviewed the applicant’s continued detention, the applicant was not present. For the others, the court fixed them at approximately two month intervals.

On 12 April 2001 the State Security Court adhered to its first judgment and convicted the applicant of the offence.

On 8 October 2001 the Court of Cassation upheld this judgment.