PROCEDURE

The case originated in an application (no. 27225/02) 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 Mr İlhami Erseven, Mr Hikmet Yıldırım, Mr Veli Ateş, Mr İsmail Öztorun, Mr Ellez Duman, Mr İsmail Kaya, Mr Kenan Atakul, Mr Süleyman Çetinkaya and Mr Bekir Arslan (“the applicants”), on 22 April 2002.

The applicants were represented by Mr Fevzi Gümüş, a lawyer practising in Ankara. The Turkish Government (“the Government”) did not designate an Agent for the purposes of the proceedings before the Court.

On 13 June 2006 the Court declared the application partly inadmissible and decided to communicate the complaint concerning the alleged breach of the applicants' right to a fair hearing to the Government. 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 FACTS

I. THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE CASE

The applicants, who were born in 1954, 1957, 1961, 1965, 1960, 1956, 1959, 1964 and 1958 respectively, live in Ankara, Izmir, Istanbul and Çorum. They were members of the executive and auditors boards of the Pir Sultan Abdal Cultural Association (“the Association”), a non‑governmental organisation with its headquarters in Ankara.

On 15 November 2000 officers from the Ankara governor's office carried out an inspection at the headquarters of the Association. They found that the members of the executive board had failed to establish a membership registration book and that the members of the auditors board had failed to conduct a periodical inspection of the Association, in breach of Articles 62 and 29 of the Law on Associations (Law no. 2908).

On 21 November 2000 officers from the Ankara Security Directorate also conducted an inspection of the registers of the association and discovered a number of defects. The Security Directorate then requested an investigation against the members of the executive and auditors boards of the association.

On an unspecified date, the Ankara public prosecutor imposed a fine of 92,510,0000 Turkish Liras (TRL) per person on the members of the executive and auditors boards of the Association.

On 15 January 2001 a payment order was served on the members of the executive and auditors boards who, however, did not pay the fine within the statutory ten-day time-limit.

Subsequently, on 17 April 2001 the Ankara public prosecutor filed a bill of indictment against the applicants, along with seventeen other persons who were also members of the executive and auditors boards of the Association. The public prosecutor requested that the accused be sentenced to a fine, under Article 86 of the Law on Associations and Article 119 § 5 of the Criminal Code, for their failure to comply with Articles 29 and 62 of the same Law.

On 11 September 2001 the Ankara Magistrates' Court (sulh ceza mahkemesi) found the applicants and the other co-accused guilty as charged and, by issuing an order (ceza kararnamesi), sentenced them to an increased fine of TRL 136,890,0000 per person.

On 8, 9, 12 and 22 October 2001, the applicants filed objections against the decision of 11 September 2001. In their petitions, the applicants maintained that they had been deprived of the opportunity to make defence submissions and that, therefore, they did not receive a fair trial.

The Ankara Criminal Court of First Instance (asliye ceza mahkemesi) dismissed the applicants' objections on the following dates:

11 October 2001 in respect of İlhami Erseven, Bekir Aslan, Süleyman Çetinkaya and İsmail Kaya;0

15 October 2001 in respect of İsmail Öztorun;

22 October 2001 in respect of Kenan Atakul and Hikmet Yıldırım; and

30 October 2001 in respect of Ellez Duman.