Şemdin Cülaz
person- Image
- Sex
- Male
- Civil status
- Married
- Occupation
- Peasant
- Dependants
- 6
- Event description
Per ruling delivered by the European Court of Human Rights on 15th April 2014 and indictment bill prepared by the Silopi Chief public Prosecutor’s Office, on 14th June 1994, one day after a clash between the army and the PKK which claimed the lives of 6 soldiers and left 13 wounded, the military organized an operation on the nearby Görümlü village in Şırnak’s Silopi district. Hükmet Şimşek, Hamdo Şimşek, Mehmet Salih Demirhan, Halit Özdemir, İbrahim Akıl ve Şemdin Cülaz were taken into custody along with another villager, who was later released. The other six men, however, were never seen or heard from, nor were their bodily remains found.
- Geolocation
Latitude: 37.3055432
Longitude: 42.4983217
- Geolocation
- City
- Şırnak
- District
- Silopi
- Date of disappearance
- Jun 14, 1993
- Year of disappearance
- 1993
- Age at the time of disappearance
- Yaş:41
- Status of the victim
- Still missing
- Latest status as suspect in the act
- Faced charges but not sentenced
- Type of source material
- ECHR decision
- Interview with family member
- Press release or report of human rights organisations
- Decision by the prosecution office
- Davada delil yetersizliği nedeniyle beraat kararı verildi; Yargıtay beraat kararını onadı
- Name of the court case
- Case of Mete Sayar
- Verdict of ECHR
- Violation of the right(s)
- Articles violated according to ECHR verdict
- Article 2: Procedural violation of the right to life
- Article 2: Substantive violation of the right to life
- Summary of the legal proceedings
Per ruling delivered by the European Court of Human Rights on 15th April 2014 and indictment bill prepared by the Silopi Chief public Prosecutor’s Office, Hükmet Şimşek, Hamdo Şimşek, Mehmet Salih Demirhan, Halit Özdemir, İbrahim Akıl ve Şemdin Cülaz disappeared after they were placed under custody following a military operation on the Görümlü village of Şırnak’s Silopi district on 14th June 1994.
The investigation launched upon the Şimşek family was dismissed with a non-prosecution decision in 1995, while the investigation initiated following the other families’ application in 2002 met the same end in 2007.
With no possibility of domestic remedy, the families applied to the ECHR, with the Şimşek family’s application being deemed inadmissible due to the six-month time limit. In the other families’ case, the ECHR ruled that Turkey had violated the article 2 (right to life) of the Convention.
In 2009, as a result of confessions made by a secret witness in the Ergenekon trial about six villagers being executed in Görümlü, a trial was launched with six high rank soldiers as defendants. In July 2017, all the defendants were acquitted due to lack of evidence. The case is under review by the Court of Cassation.