Published on 2 December 2024
 
SECOND SECTION
Application no. 47472/22
İhsan ÇETİN
against Türkiye
lodged on 28 September 2022
communicated on 12 November 2024
SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE
The application concerns the alleged unfairness of criminal proceedings in which the applicant was convicted of undermining the unity of the State and its territorial integrity (Article 302 of the Criminal Code), and sentenced to life imprisonment. His conviction was based, to a decisive extent, if not solely, on statements made by a witness, M.H., a former member of the PKK (Worker’s Party of Kurdistan) who had surrendered to the Erciş Gendarmerie Command and cooperated with the prosecuting authorities in exchange for a reduction of his sentence. In that context, M.H. made incriminating statements in respect of many individuals, including the applicant, which led to the discovery of weapons, as well as the identification and conviction of certain persons as PKK members. The trial court also found that the statements of Ö.S. (who was mentioned in M.H.’s statements as being one of the persons involved in the act attributed to the applicant) in which the latter had not mentioned the applicant, had corroborated M.H’s statement in which the applicant’s name was mentioned.
The applicant complains that his conviction entailed a breach of Article 6 § 1 of the Convention, as it had been based solely on the testimony of a witness, M.H., who had cooperated with the prosecution. The domestic courts neither shed light on the circumstances surrounding the statements that M.H. had allegedly made after his surrender nor scrutinised those statements. The applicant further pointed out that when giving evidence at the trial, M.H. denied having made any statements to the gendarmerie forces about or identifying him, arguing that he had not seen the applicant before. This showed that the law enforcement officers had manipulated M.H’s testimony as they pleased and had included the applicant’s name there without M.H.’s consent. Yet, the domestic courts had neither assessed these points nor resolved the inconsistency between M.H.’s statements given at different times.
Moreover, Ö.S., who was identified by M.H. as one of the persons involved in the incident of which the applicant was accused, gave evidence as a witness at the trial, and while he confessed that he had acted as a lookout in that incident, he stated that he had not seen the applicant at the incident scene. Yet, even though the fact that Ö.S.’s statements had not indicated the applicant’s name was crucial for the case, the domestic courts failed to explain why they had not based their decision on Ö.S.’s statements.
In the applicant’s view, the foregoing considerations were such that the proceedings against him fell short of the requirements of a fair trial, entailing a breach of Article 6 § 1 of the Convention.
QUESTION TO THE PARTIES
Did the applicant have a fair hearing in the determination of the criminal charges against him, in accordance with Article 6 § 1 of the Convention? In particular, was the use of the statements made by M.H. accompanied by appropriate safeguards so as to ensure the overall fairness of the proceedings against the applicant? In that connection, did the domestic courts properly assess the quality of the evidence given by M.H. and subject it to a searching scrutiny with a view to enabling the applicant to effectively challenge it (see for the relevant principles Habran and Dalem v. Belgium, nos. 43000/11 and 49380/11, §§ 94-96, 17 January 2017)?
 
The parties are invited to submit copies of all the relevant documents concerning the applicant’s case, including but not limited to the minutes of all the hearings, the reasoned judgment of the trial court, documentary evidence against the applicant, and the written submissions of the applicant and his lawyer(s) throughout the proceedings.
 
The parties are further requested to submit all the relevant documents concerning the criminal proceedings against M.H. and Ö.S., including the statements that they had made on different dates.