Human rights judges have thrown out a Hizbullah member’s protest against pre-trial detention in Turkey.
In its decision in the case of Demir v. Turkey (application no. 51770/07) the European Court of Human Rights has by a majority declared the application inadmissible. The decision is final.
Şefik Demir is a Turkish national who was sentenced to life imprisonment for committing a number of crimes in the name of the Hizbullah of which he was a member. Demir was arrested in 2000 and was finally convicted in 2009. He complained of the length of his pre-trial detention, which lasted throughout that period.
The Court observed that the possibility for a detainee to seek compensation on such grounds, after the pre-trial detention had already ended, existed in Turkey since 2005.
Finding that Demir should have used that remedy, the Court declared his application inadmissible.
