Mehmet Özdemir
person- Image
- Sex
- Male
- Civil status
- Married
- Occupation
- Merchant
- Dependants
- 9
- Event description
Per ECHR case file, forty-three year-old Mehmet Özdemir, one of 12 children in the family, was living in the Araki (Kıyı) village of Diyarbakır’s Lice county, working in the fields and raising the family’s animals. He was married and had seven children. Araki village was constantly raided by the security forces so he moved to Diyarbakır with his family, but he still tended to his animals and fields in the village, and thus kept visiting the village. Eventually when the village was burnt and evacuated by the security forces, he started to make a living trading livestock.
Prior to his disappearance, he was detained and tortured several times, suffering bodily damage as a result. On 26th December 1997, he left home to go the livestock market. While he was at the coffeehouse near the market, he was led outside by two plainclothes men carrying walkie-talkies and forced into a white car.After hearing of the incident from witnesses, his wife sought legal help from the Human Rights Association (İHD) and embarked on a years-long combat in search of her husband. She did not obtain any results within the Turkish legal system but won her case against Turkey at the ECHR. Mehmet Özdemir’s remains, however, have not been found thus far.
- Geolocation
Latitude: 37.9249733
Longitude: 40.2109826
- Geolocation
- City
- Diyarbakır
- District
- Sur
- Date of disappearance
- Dec 26, 1997
- Year of disappearance
- 1997
- Age at the time of disappearance
- Yaş:43
- Status of the victim
- Still missing
- Type of source material
- ECHR decision
- Interview with family member (audio and video records)
- 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 13: Right to an effective remedy
- Article 2: Procedural violation of the right to life
- Article 2: Substantive violation of the right to life
- Article 3: Prohibition of torture in respect of the applicant
- Article 5: Right to liberty and security
- Summary of the legal proceedings
Per ECHR case file, from 1997 until 2004, Mehmet Özdemir’s wife applied to many authorities, including the Diyarbakır State Security Court, the Police Headquarters, the Diyarbakır Public Prosecutor and the Human Rights Commissions in the National Assembly, all to no avail. In 1999, she applied for ECHR. In 2008, the ECHR ruled that Turkey had violated article 2 (right to life), article 3 (prohibition of torture and ill-treatment with regard to Özdemir’s wife), article 5 (violation of right to freedom and security) and article 13 (right to effective remedy).