Euro court fines Turkey for two failed investigations into suspicious deaths cases

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled that Turkey violated the right to effective, independent and prompt investigation into suspicious deaths in two separate cases, issuing a fine of 20,000 euros in each case.

The first case in which Turkey was found guilty of violating Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights was the death of a woman as a result of a fire caused by one of her colleagues at her workplace, while the other was the killing of a man during his compulsory military service.

In the first case, Serpil İmren, a secretary for a private company involved in the trade of mineral oil, suffered serious injuries in December 2002 as a result of a fire caused by one of her colleagues at her workplace. She succumbed to her injuries in January 2003. 

Her colleague and the owner of the oil company were subsequently indicted and sentenced to 10 months in prison and a fine in April 2005. 

The same court issued similar sentences after two additional sets of proceedings in November 2006 and February 2009, which were held due to its judgments being first remitted for reassessment by the public prosecutor's office attached to the Supreme Court of Appeals and later quashed by the court itself. In December 2010 the Supreme Court of Appeals eventually decided that the criminal proceedings should be discontinued on the ground that the prosecution had become time-barred.

Upon a complaint by İmren's mother, Sıdıka İmren, the ECHR ruled for a just satisfaction of 20,000 euros for non-pecuniary damage.

The second ruling came in a complaint by the parents of Celal Abbas Üstdağ, who sustained lethal injuries after allegedly being shot by another conscript, M.G., in the barracks where they were stationed...