Published on 4 August 2025
SECOND SECTION
Application no. 58066/17
Emrah BİÇER
against Türkiye
lodged on 30 May 2017
communicated on 15 July 2025
SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE
The application concerns the alleged violation of Articles 5, 6 and 13 of the Convention on account of the applicant’s pre-trial detention on charges of being a member of an armed terrorist organisation.
The applicant alleges that the magistrate Z.Ö. who ordered his pre-trial detention was not impartial, arguing that the public prosecutor who requested his pre-trial detention was the husband of the magistrate in question. He further alleges that his request for recusal was not duly examined by the domestic courts.
QUESTIONS TO THE PARTIES
1. Was the applicant placed in pre-trial detention by an independent and impartial “judge” within the meaning of Article 5 § 3 of the Convention (see Nikolova v. Bulgaria [GC], no. 31195/96, § 49, ECHR 1999-II; Ali Osman Özmen v. Turkey, no. 42969/04, §§ 70-81, 5 July 2016; and Hood v. the United Kingdom [GC], no. 27267/95, §§ 57-58, ECHR 1999-I)?
2. Did the applicant have at his disposal an effective procedure to have his challenge of judge Z.Ö. for bias examined by the domestic courts, as required by Article 5 § 4 or Article 5 § 3, taken alone or in conjunction with Article 13 of the Convention (see Nikolova, cited above, §§ 67-69; and, mutatis mutandis, Revtyuk v. Russia, no. 31796/10, §§ 21-29, 9 January 2018; and Kolesnikova v. Russia, no. 45202/14, §§ 57-58, 2 March 2021)?