Mansur PAD and Others Vs.Turkey
1. The applicants, Mansur Pad, Salim Ibrahim Manesh, Morad Afrasi,2 Ali Afrasi, Adel Keshavarz, Said Pourmola Borazan and Veysi Eli Mikail,3 are all Iranian citizens, apart from Veysi Eli Mikail, who is an Iraqi citizen. They all reside in Iran except for Mansur Pad, who lives in Sweden. They were represented before the Court by Mr Mark Muller, Mr Kerim Yıldız and Ms Anke Stock, lawyers practising in London.
2. The application concerns the alleged torture and killing of seven Iranian men from the village of Razgeh in the Margewar province of north-west Iran by Turkish soldiers on 7 May 1999. The victims of the alleged incident on 7 May 1999 were Vahab Pad, Kamfar Pad, Ghazi Afrazi, Changiz Afrazi, Jaader Ibrahim Manesh, Abdulhallkhleq Keshavarz and Vali Ali Hossain.
3. The applicants are, variously, brothers or fathers of the deceased, save for Said Pourmola Borazan, who claims to be a witness to the events and a friend of the victims.
A. The circumstances of the case
4. The facts of the case, as submitted by the parties, may be summarised as follows.
1. The facts as presented by the applicants
5. On Friday 7 May 1999, a holiday in Iran, the seven men referred to above and the applicant Said Pourmola Borazan, all from the village of Razgeh, went on horseback into the mountains near their village (towards the Nari valley) to collect wild vegetables and fruit, such as mushrooms and rhubarb.
6. When they reached the top of Mount Baragawr, which was about 500 metres from the Turkish border, they heard the sound of helicopters. Two fighter helicopters circled overhead a few times and opened fire on the men. Said Pourmola Borazan’s horse was killed by a rocket fired from the helicopters. The helicopters landed and the villagers were surrounded by at least forty Turkish soldiers. Seven of the villagers hid together under a rock, except Said Pourmola Borazan, who hid 500 metres away from the others and covered himself with vegetation and snow.
7. The Turkish soldiers captured the seven men on the Iranian side of the border but did not find Said Pourmola Borazan. The alleged facts are accordingly based on the latter’s eyewitness evidence.
8. The seven men were handcuffed and taken by force across the border, about 300 metres into Turkish territory, in the region of the village of Halana. They were beaten and cut with knives. The soldiers then made them lie down on the ground and shot them dead with machine guns. According to Said Pourmola Borazan, the Turkish soldiers had forced the men to put on Kurdish costumes and placed guns beside them so that they could claim to have killed some terrorists.
9. Said Pourmola Borazan stayed in his hiding place from about 12 noon or 1 p.m. until approximately 9 p.m., by which time it had turned dark. He emerged from the hiding place and looked around to see if anybody was alive. He then ran back to the village of Razgeh. He informed the relatives of the seven men about the incident. The relatives of the victims and Said Pourmola Borazan went into the mountains to recover the corpses. The Iranian authorities, who were informed of the deaths, granted permission for burial. The funerals took place on 9 May 1999.
Tags: 13, 14, 18 and 34 of the Convention, 3, 5, Articles 2, commit unintentional homicide, deprive an individual unlawfully of his or her lib, individual to torture or ill-treatment, intentional homicide