SECOND SECTION

Application no. 15014/11
Hasan KÖSE
against Turkey
lodged on 6 December 2010

STATEMENT OF FACTS

The applicant, Mr Hasan Köse, is a Turkish national who was born in 1972 and lives in İzmir. He is represented before the Court by Mr Eylem Salık, a lawyer practising in İzmir.

The circumstances of the case

The facts of the case, as submitted by the applicant, may be summarised as follows.

The applicant and his brother are decorators. On 8 January 2007 they were driving in their van to their place of work in İzmir, when a number of plain-clothes police officers on two motorbikes indicated to the applicant that he should pull over. The police officers then told the applicant that he had been driving erratically and asked him to get out of the vehicle. The applicant and his brother got out of the van and asked to see the police officers’ identification cards. The police officers got agitated and started hitting the applicant’s brother. When the applicant asked them to stop, they sprayed the applicant with tear gas and he fell to the ground. When one of the police officers put his fingers in the applicant’s nostrils and pulled him up, the applicant tried to push that police officer away. The applicant heard one of the police officers cocking his pistol. Thinking that the police officers, who were refusing to show him their identification cards, could in fact be robbers, the applicant got hold of a wooden stick from the back of his van to defend himself. At that moment, one of the police officers, Mr U., fired three rounds towards the applicant. One of the bullets hit the applicant’s abdomen and he fell to the ground.

Police officers then handcuffed the applicant and his brother. One of the police officers grabbed the wooden stick and started hitting the applicant’s brother, while another officer hit and kicked the applicant. Although the applicant’s brother asked the officers to take the applicant to a hospital, they did not listen to him. The applicant and his brother were then taken to a police station, where they were placed in custody. The applicant’s brother shouted and asked the custody officers to take his brother to a hospital.

The applicant was subsequently taken to the accident and emergency department at a hospital, where he underwent surgery. The doctors consider