Namık Erkek

person
Image
Image
Sex
Male
Civil status
Unknown
Occupation
  • Barrowman
Event description

Per ECHR case file, 30-year-old Namık Erkek sold groceries at the marketplace in Mersin for a living. On 19th December 1992, he was taken into custody for acting for the PKK. When his brother inquired about Namık Erkek at the counterterrorism division of the police station, he was told that he had escaped on the night of his arrest. His family searched for him and tried to obtain information about what had happened to him, to no avail. He has not been heard from or seen; nor has his body been found.

In 1998, the family applied to the ECHR; which ruled in 2004 that Turkey had violated article 2 (right to life) of the Convention.

Geolocation

Latitude: 36.8121041

Longitude: 34.6414811

Geolocation
City
Mersin
Date of disappearance
Dec 19, 1992
Year of disappearance
1992
Age at the time of disappearance
Yaş:30
Status of the victim
Still missing
Type of source material
  • ECHR decision
  • Press release or report of human rights organisations
  • Printed or online news
Decision by the prosecution office
Decision of non-prosecution due to lack of evidence
Verdict of ECHR
  • Violation of the right(s)
Articles violated according to ECHR verdict
  • Article 2: Procedural violation of the right to life
Summary of the legal proceedings

Per ECHR case file, Namık Erkek’s brother did not believe that he had escaped after being placed under custody for acting for the PKK, as police officers told him when he tried to obtain information about his brother. As the initial investigation was still ongoing, in 1994 Namık Erkek’s brother filed a complaint about police officers to the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office; which revealed that the Police Discipline Committee had acquitted the officers in 1993 and the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office dismissed the case in 1998. The same year, Namık Erkek’s family applied to the ECHR; which ruled in 2004 that Turkey had violated article 2 (right to life) of the Convention.