Hüseyin Koku
person- Image
- Sex
- Male
- Civil status
- Married
- Date body found
- Apr 27, 1995
- Occupation
- Politician
- Event description
Per ruling delivered by the European Human Rights Court on 31st May 2005; Hüseyin Koku, a registered member of the HADEP (People’s Democracy Party) in Elbistan, was detained and tortured by the police in April 1994. On 18th October 1994, Hüseyin Koku was taken by police officers to see the mayor, who told Hüseyin Koku that there would be ramifications if he wouldn’t cut his ties with the party and if the party wouldn’t close its Elbistan branch. On 20th October, as Hüseyin Koku was walking on the street with his wife, several men in plain clothes emerged from a white Renault car and forced him inside.
His wife and his relative’s search for him to no avail. On 27th April 1995, the police informed Mrs Koku that her husband’s dead body had been found near the Pötürge district of Malatya.
In 2005, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Turkey had violated the articles 2 (right to life), 13 (right to effective remedy) as well as the now defunct article 38 and required the government to pay compensation to the family.
- Geolocation
Latitude: 38.25221169999999
Longitude: 37.3827234
- Geolocation
- City
- Kahramanmaraş
- District
- Elbistan
- Date of disappearance
- Oct 20, 1994
- Year of disappearance
- 1994
- Age at the time of disappearance
- Yaş:36
- Status of the victim
- Discovered dead and returned to the family
- Type of source material
- ECHR decision
- Press release or report of human rights organisations
- Decision by the prosecution office
- Unknown
- Verdict of ECHR
- Violation of the right(s)
- Articles violated according to ECHR verdict
- Article 13: Right to an effective remedy
- Article 2: Failure to protect life
- Article 2: Procedural violation of the right to life
- Article 38: Examination of the case
- Summary of the legal proceedings
Per ruling delivered by the European Human Rights Court on 31st May 2005; Hüseyin Koku, a registered member of the HADEP (People’s Democracy Party) in Elbistan disappeared after being forced into a car by plain-clothes men on 20th October 1994. Despite the family’s efforts, the authorities did not initiate an investigation until the discovery of his dead body in April 1995.
As the family realized that the domestic legal system would not yield a result, they applied to the ECHR. In the preliminary phase of the Court’s fact-finding and decision process, the Turkish side maintained that the authorities did not have any contact with Hüseyin Koku except for his arrest on 10th May 1994 for being a PKK member, after which he was released from court on 17th May due to lack of evidence and the investigation had been duly performed after the discovery of his dead body. However, the Turkish side did not submit any other documents to the court.
In 2005, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that Turkey had violated the articles 2 (right to life), 13 (right to effective remedy) as well as the now defunct article 38 and required the government to pay compensation to the family.