Mehmet Ay
person- Image
- Sex
- Male
- Civil status
- Unknown
- Date body found
- Apr 9, 1994
- Occupation
- Unknown
- Event description
Per ECHR case file, on 18th March 1994, Mehmet Ay, a member of the health workers’ union TÜM Sağlık-Sen, was detained by police officers while he was at a coffeehouse and taken to his brother’s house, where a friend of his Necati Aydın, an active and high-ranking member of the same union, and his pregnant wife were staying as guests. Everyone in the house, including a five-year-old, were taken to the Mobile Strategic Force Unit, where Necati Aydın and Mehmet Ay were interrogated under torture. While the others were released several days later without a court hearing, the two men were kept under detention. Necati Aydın and Mehmet Ay were spotted by a lawyer at the courthouse on 5th April 1994, however they were not heard of or seen afterwards. According to the lawyer’s findings, on that day, the two men had appeared before a judge, who released them at that hearing. When queried by the lawyer, the Chief Public Prosecutor said that the men had been released, after which they had probably joined the PKK.
On 9th April 1994, the bodies of Mehmet Ay and Necati Aydın were found near a river along with the body of a university student, Ramazan Keskin, who had been placed in custody on 31st March 1994 and released by court on the same day as them.
- Geolocation
Latitude: 37.9249733
Longitude: 40.2109826
- Geolocation
- City
- Diyarbakır
- Date of disappearance
- Apr 4, 1994
- Year of disappearance
- 1994
- Age at the time of disappearance
- HAH/act/503
- Status of the victim
- Discovered dead and returned to the family
- Type of source material
- Printed or online news
- Decision by the prosecution office
- Investigation continues
- 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: Violation of right to life
- Article 3: Prohibition of torture
- Article 38: Examination of the case
- Summary of the legal proceedings
Per ECHR case file, following the discovery of the bodies, the Bismil Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office launched an investigation (file no. 1994/2233) naming unknown PKK members as perpetuators. Necati Aydın’s wife applied to the European Court of Human Rights in October 1994, as the legal process continued to stall in Turkey, with legal bodies transferring the case between them. In May 2005, the ECHR penalized Turkey for violation of article 2 (right to life), 3 (prohibition of torture) and 13 (right to effective remedy) in the case Aydın vs Turkey.
After Abdülkadir Aygan, an ex-PKK militant turned JİTEM member, claimed that JİTEM had picked up the three men as they exited the courthouse following a request by the police force and killed them after interrogation, in 2009 the Bismil Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office initiated an investigation, which was later merged in 2014 with the murders of İzettin Acet and Mehmet Emin Kaynar, also presumed to be killed by the same JİTEM members.