PROCEDURE

The case originated in an application (no. 38907/09) 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 Bayram Koç (“the applicant”), on 15 July 2009.

The applicant was represented by Mr İ. Akmeşe, a lawyer practising in Istanbul. The Turkish Government (“the Government”) were represented by their Agent.

The applicant alleged, in particular, that he had been denied access to a lawyer while in police custody and that his police statements had been relied on by the trial court to convict him.

On 19 June 2013 the complaint concerning restriction on access to a lawyer was communicated to the Government and the remainder of the application was declared inadmissible pursuant to Rule 54 § 3 of the Rules of Court.

On 7 October 2016 the Vice-President of the Second Section invited the Government to submit further observations, if they so wished, following the judgment in Ibrahim and Others v. the United Kingdom ([GC], nos. 50541/08 and 3 others, 13 September 2016).

THE FACTS

I. THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE CASE

The applicant was born in 1980 and lives in Diyarbakır.

On 17 January 2003 the applicant was arrested and taken into police custody on suspicion of membership of an illegal organisation.

On 18 January 2003 his statements were taken by the police in the absence of a lawyer. The applicant confessed to being a member of an illegal organisation. He gave a detailed account of its structure and his acts within the illegal organisation. On the same day the applicant was heard by a public prosecutor and an investigating judge respectively. In these statements to the public prosecutor and the investigating judge, he denied his police statements and argued that they had been taken under duress. Following his questioning, the investigating judge ordered that the applicant be held on remand.

On 28 January 2003 a public prosecutor at the Istanbul State Security Court filed an indictment with that court, charging the applicant under Article 146 of the former Criminal Code.

State Security Courts were later abolished by Law no. 5190 of 16 June 2004, and the case was transferred to the Istanbul Assize Court.

On 10 June 2008 the Istanbul Assize Court found that, inter alia, on the basis of the applicant’s statements to the police, the public prosecutor and the investigating judge, the applicant had committed the offence under Article 314 of the Criminal Code and sentenced him to two years and one month’s imprisonment.

On 27 May 2009 the applicant’s lawyer appealed against the judgment, arguing that the applicant had been convicted on the basis of statements taken under duress.

On 3 March 2010 the Court of Cassation upheld the judgment of the first-instance court.