Şeyhmuz Yavuz
person- Image
- Sex
- Male
- Civil status
- Unknown
- Date body found
- Mar 17, 1994
- Occupation
- Unknown
- Event description
Per ECHR’s ruling on the case, Şeyhmuz Yavuz was abducted from a pastry shop in central Diyarbakır on 11th March 1994 by three unknown men; about a week later, his dead body was discovered in a village in Diyarbakır. The ballistic examination of a gun found on a former PKK militant-turned JİTEM member on 14th July 1994 matched bullets found in Şeyhmuz Yavuz’s body. The JİTEM member alleged that he had abducted Şeyhmuz along with two police officers, who had asked him to understand whether Şeyhmuz was a PKK member. According to the testimony of the JİTEM member, who identified one of the police officers from a photo line-up, the officers had shot Şeyhmuz. In 1997, the JİTEM member was sentenced to twenty years in prison, while the police officer was acquitted due to lack of evidence. In 1999, the Yavuz family applied to the ECHR, which found it inadmissible as the six-month period for filing cases had passed.
- Geolocation
Latitude: 37.9249733
Longitude: 40.2109826
- Geolocation
- City
- Diyarbakır
- Date of disappearance
- Mar 11, 1994
- Year of disappearance
- 1994
- Age at the time of disappearance
- HAH/act/277
- Status of the victim
- Discovered dead and returned to the family
- Latest status as suspect in the act
- Faced charges and served sentence-
- Faced charges but not sentenced
- Type of source material
- ECHR decision
- Press release or report of human rights organisations
- Printed or online news
- Decision by the prosecution office
- Definitive decision of criminal sentence
- Name of the court case
- Case of Seyhmuz Yavuz
- Verdict of ECHR
- Non-compliance with the six-month time limit
- Summary of the legal proceedings
Per ECHR’s ruling on the case, in October 1994, the Diyarbakır Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office launched a court case against a former PKK militant-turned JİTEM member, whose gun had matched the bullets found in the dead body of Şeyhmuz Yavuz, abducted from central Diyarbakır in March 1994. The JİTEM member alleged that he had been asked by two police officers to understand whether Şeyhmuz Yavuz was a PKK member, which resulted in his abduction by the three men and later his murder by the police officers. In September 1995, the JİTEM member identified one of the police officers, who was included in the case as a defendant in May 1997. The JİTEM member was sentenced to twenty years in prison, while the police officer was acquitted due to lack of evidence in September 1997; the Court of Cassation ratified the sentence. In 1999, the Yavuz family applied to the ECHR, which found the case inadmissible as the six-month period for filing cases had passed.