Enforced disappearance of Fehmi Tosun: Perpetrators protected by ‘privacy’
* Photo: Evrim Kepenek / bianet
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Fehmi Tosun was abducted before the eyes of his spouse and children in front of their house in İstanbul's Avcılar on October 19, 1995 at around 7 pm. Abducted by a white vehicle with the license plate 34 UD 597, Tosun's fate and whereabouts have still been unknown.
The Küçükçekmece Chief Public Prosecutor's Office has closed the investigation into Fehmi Tosun's enforced disappearance. With the decision no. 2015/25023, the Prosecutor's Office has concluded that "there is no ground for prosecution" due to the expiry of statute of limitations.
The investigation file has been closed despite all the efforts of the family as well as their lawyers over the years.
While the license plate of the vehicle that abducted Tosun is known, it is still kept confidential to whom the vehicle belonged. "The privacy [of the private life]" is cited as the reason for not sharing this information.
Applying to the Interior Ministry on September 9, 2015, the lawyers of the family asked under whose name the vehicle with the license plate 34 UD 597 belonged to at the time; however, the application was rejected on the grounds of "privacy" as per Article 21 of the Law no. 4982.
'An important piece of evidence not investigated'
In a Parliamentary question addressed to Vice President Fuat Oktay today (November 1), Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) İstanbul MP Oya Ersoy has underlined that an extremely important piece of evidence has not been investigated by the prosecutor's office.
Ersoy has stressed that considering that Fehmi Tosun was abducted, disappeared and his right to life was violated, it is unlawful that the privacy of another person is cited and no inquiry is made for this reason.
The MP has noted that revealing the then title holder of the vehicle in question is of importance to discover the fate and whereabouts of Tosun.
Ersoy has asked Oktay the following questions:
- Under whose name was the vehicle with the license plate 34 UD 597 registered on October 19, 1995)
- What is the reason for not giving the information about the title holder of the vehicle to Fehmi Tosun's family and lawyers?
- Has an inquiry been made regarding the title holder of the vehicle and his or her connection with the incident?
- Don't you think that it will disrupt the judicial process when the lawyers are not given information as per the right to information act despite the vital importance of knowing under whose name the related license plate was registered at the time to uncover the incident?
What happened?
Fehmi Tosun (35) and his family used to live in Lice's Licok village in Turkey's Kurdish-majority southeastern province of Diyarbakır. The citizens there were under heavy pressure, ranging from being forced to work as village guards to operations, detentions, mass tortures and forced migration.
Fehmi Tosun was also threatened, taken into custody, subjected to torture and imprisoned for over three years in this climate of repression. As the threats continued, he and his family moved to İstanbul after his release.
After having breakfast, Tosun and his friend Hüseyin Aydemir left his house in Avcılar on October 19, 1995. He was dropped in front of his house by three unarmed plain-clothes people with walkie-talkies in a white Renault vehicle with the license plate 34 UD 597 in the evening hours.
While he was moving towards the garden of his house together with these people, he shouted at his family and children: "They will kill me!" As they ran towards him, Fehmi Tosun was taken to the vehicle by force and taken away. The people of the neighborhood witnessed the incident.
His spouse Hanım Tosun went to the Avcılar police station immediately and told them what happened. She gave the license plate number to the police and asked them to intervene. Controlling the vehicle and having some phone calls, they answered, "There is nothing we can do."
Hanım Tosun and the Human Rights Association (İHD) took legal action; the relevant units of the government and public were informed about the incident. However, it was not accepted that Fehmi Tosun was detained and his fate and whereabouts have remained unknown.
As the domestic remedies have been exhausted, the case was taken to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). The case was concluded in 2003. The government, in its defense, stated, "Our government is sorry for the disappearance of Fehmi Tosun. It is admitted that the failure to deficiently investigate a person's disappearance is in violation of Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR)."
The government also pledged that it would give instructions to ensure that all measures would be taken about the violations of rights to life and would require that effective investigations be carried out.
However, no effective investigation has been carried out so far into the enforced disappearance of Fehmi Tosun. Even the request for knowing under whose name the vehicle that kidnapped Fehmi Tosun was not met on the grounds of "privacy [of the private life]."
With decisions of "non-prosecution" as a result of the expiry of statutory limitations, the files have been closed. The appeals against these decisions have been rejected. Answering the question of the UN about the disappearance of Tosun, the Ministry answered that "he had gone abroad." It cited the time when Tosun was in prison as the time of his departure.
Hanım Tosun and his five children are still searching for Fehmi Tosun. (AS/SD)
