Compensation for Eight-Year-Old Child Held Under Detention

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The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) announced its verdict on the case of a child who had been arbitrarily held in a police station for two days.

The court ruled that Turkey violated Article 5/1 of the European Convention on Human Rights and sentenced it to pay compensation to the child.

Mom found her child in detention

In the incident happened in 2001, B.S.D, who was eight years old at the time, was taken to a police station after a police raid in his neighbor's home and had been kept there for two days.

His mom Y.T. left him at their neighbor C.Ö.'s home when she was busy.

Police raided C.Ö.'s home in a theft investigation.

Y.T. had looked for her son for two days but was unable to find him in the two police stations in the area.

Y.T. then was detained in the same investigation with C.Ö.

She found her son sleeping on a desk at the İstanbul Beyoğlu Police Station, where she was taken to after being arrested.

"He was threatened to tell his mom's whereabouts"

Y.T. filed a complaint against the police, claiming that her son was arbitrarily held under detention and that the police officers threatened him to tell his mom's whereabouts.

In November 2004, a lawsuit was filed against some police officers at the station for misconduct. In 2009, the court ruled for the discontinuation of the case because of the limitation of statutes.

After the Supreme Court of Appeals upheld this verdict, Y.T. applied to the ECtHR through her lawyer.

"The child was in a vulnerable situation"

The ECtHR ruled that Turkey violated the article 5/1 of the ECHR today, sentencing it to pay compensation to the child.

The court's ruling said, "C.Ö. had been released after providing a statement and had not been obliged to spend the night in the police station; that B.S.D had been detained in a room in the police station."

"Without dwelling on whether or not this had represented formal police custody, the Court concluded that the child, aged eight at the time, had been taken to the police station by police officers and detained there alone, at least from 27 to 28 October 2001, when his mother had arrived.

"His position was characterized by his very young age and the fact that he had been unaccompanied after his arrival at the police station. He had thus been left to himself in the police premises and had been in a vulnerable situation.

"This detention had not had any legitimate purpose under Article 5/1 and had therefore been arbitrary. It followed that there had been a violation of Article 5 / 1 of the Convention." (AS/VK)