The law enforcement agencies of Georgia, on the basis of the request of relevant agencies of the Republic of Turkey, arrested M.E.Ch. on the territory of Georgia on May 24, 2017. Court sent M.E.Ch. to three-month extradition custody.

The Public Defender started to study the case on his own initiative on the basis of the media reports, while his representative visited the detainee on the day he was arrested.

According to the detainee, he will be tortured if extradited to Turkey, since the Government of Turkey regards him as an adversary of the President and the authorities of Turkey. In addition, the reports about the violations of the detainees’ rights by law enforcement agencies of Turkey after the 2016 coup attempt, as well as the evaluations of the international organizations, gives rise to the suspicion that the detainee’s fear that he may be tortured in case of extradition to Turkey is not groundless.

Accordingly, the Public Defender calls on the relevant agencies to take into account the risk of ill-treatment of the detainee in Turkey, in accordance with international standards, and to act in line with the standards established by the European Court of Human Rights while making a decision on the extradition of M.E.Ch., in order to prevent the violation of Article 3 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.