SECOND SECTION
DECISION
Application no. 61621/08
by Hadice ÖZTÜRK TÜRKER and Others
against Turkey
The European Court of Human Rights (Second Section), sitting on 8 March 2011 as a Committee composed of:
Ireneu Cabral Barreto, President,
Dragoljub Popović,
András Sajó, judges,
and Françoise Elens-Passos, Deputy Section Registrar,
Having regard to the above application lodged on 11 November 2008,
Having regard to the formal declarations accepting a friendly settlement of the case,
Having deliberated, decides as follows:
PROCEDURE
The application was lodged by Ms Hadice Öztürk Türker, Mr Hakan Ekmekçi, Ms Büket Kuzu Temel and Ms Figen Işık Sadak, Turkish nationals who were born in 1970, 1964, 1972 and 1968 respectively. They live in Diyarbakır. They were represented before the Court by Mr M.A. Altunkalem, a lawyer practising in Diyarbakır. The Turkish Government (“the Government”) were represented by their Agent.
On 10 May 2010 the Court decided to communicate the applicants’ complaints under Articles 6 § 1 and 13 of the Convention concerning the length of criminal proceedings against them and the lack of an effective domestic remedy for these lengthy proceedings. The impugned proceedings began on 13 April 1998 and ended on 17 June 2008.
On 23 June 2010 and 17 August 2010 the Court received friendly settlement declarations signed by the parties under which the applicants agreed to waive any further claims against Turkey in respect of the facts giving rise to this application against an undertaking by the Government to pay them EUR 9,000 (nine thousand euros) jointly to cover any pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage as well as costs and expenses, which would be converted into Turkish Liras at the rate applicable on the date of payment, and will be free of any taxes that may be applicable. It will be payable within three months from the date of notification of the decision taken by the Court pursuant to Article 37 § 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights. In the event of failure to pay this sum within the said three-month period, the Government undertook to pay simple interest on it, from expiry of that period until settlement, at a rate equal to the marginal lending rate of the European Central Bank during the default period plus three percentage points. The payment will constitute the final resolution of the case.
THE LAW
The Court takes note of the friendly settlement reached between the parties. It is satisfied that the settlement is based on respect for human rights as defined in the Convention and its Protocols and finds no reasons to justify a continued examination of the application (Article 37 § 1 in fine of the Convention).
In view of the above, it is appropriate to strike the case out of the list.
For these reasons, the Court unanimously
Decides to strike the application out of its list of cases.
Françoise Elens-PassosIreneu Cabral Barreto
Deputy RegistrarPresident
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