EHCR rules out violation of rights in ‘death fast’ case against Turkey
ISTANBUL - The European Court of Human Rights (EHCR) ruled on Tuesday that there had been no violation of Article 2 (right to life) in relation to the death in detention of Muharrem Horoz, who had been taking part in a hunger strike while awaiting trial in Turkey.
The case was brought to the EHCR by his mother who alleged that the judicial authorities had violated her son’s right to life in refusing to release him, contrary to the opinion of the Institute of Forensic Medicine, resulting in his death.
Horoz, who was 35 at the time of his death, was placed in pre-trial detention after being arrested by police in August 1999 and charged with attacking the constitutional order of the State and various terrorist acts committed on behalf of an illegal organization.
The Court noted that Horoz had died from health complications resulting from his hunger strike, and that no complaint had been made about the conditions of his detention or of any absence of appropriate treatment.
While the Court says it would have been “desirable” for Horoz to be freed after the release of a report by the Institute of Forensic Medicine, there was no evidence permitting it to criticize the judicial authorities’ assessment of the information it contained.
There is no element enabling the ECHR to challenge the conclusions of an investigation conducted by the Minister of Justice, the Court added in handing down its decision.
Prison protest
In 2001, while detained in the Kandira F-type prison, Horoz joined a hunger strike organized in protest against the high security prisons that house one- to three-person cells instead of dormitories. This strike became a “death fast,” in which only sugared water and vitamins were accepted.
Horoz was hospitalized on several occasions in June and July 2001 after losing consciousness. During the first emergency hospitalization, he refused any treatment after being resuscitated.
In a report released in July 2001, the Institute of Forensic Medicine diagnosed a “terminal failure as a result of insufficient nutrition” and recommended that Horoz be released for six because his state of health was incompatible with imprisonment.
The Ankara National Security Court dismissed an application for release lodged by Horoz’s lawyer on the basis that the law related to conditional release on health grounds applied to “convicted persons” and not to individuals in “pre-trial detention,” and because he had access to the necessary medical treatment.
Horoz, who was hospitalized in the prison wing of the civilian hospital in northwestern Kocaeli province, went into a coma on July 27 before he passed away on Aug. 3, 2001.
turkishdailynews.com.tr
