Mehmet Özcan and Others v. Turkey (nos. 4018/07, 4019/07, 4172/07, 23562/07, 36595/07, 54508/07, 54520/07, 2539/08, 16353/08, 34350/08, 34379/08, 35269/08, 37798/08, 37818/08, 56422/08, 20437/09, 20440/09, 20453/09, 20460/09, 20568/09, 20604/09, 20608/09, 20613/09 and 20636/09) – Chamber Judgment, 26 October 2010.  From the Court Press Release: The applicants are 24 Turkish nationals who were arrested and taken into police custody between 1995 and 2003 during operations launched against Hizbullah, an illegal armed organisation. Relying on Article 5 §§ 3 and 4 (right to liberty and security), they complained of the length of their detention during the proceedings brought against them and/or of having no effective means by which to dispute the lawfulness of their detention. Relying also on Article 6 § 1 (right to a fair trial within a reasonable time) and Article 13 (right to an effective remedy), they complained of the length of the criminal proceedings against them and of the lack of an effective remedy in Turkey with which they could challenge that. (Seven applicants) Violation of Article 5 §§ 3 and 4 (All applicants) Violation of Article 6 § 1 (length) (All applicants) Violation of Article 13 Just satisfaction: – non-pecuniary damage: each applicant, sums ranging from EUR 2,400 to EUR 14,000 – costs and expenses: jointly, EUR 10,000.

El-Masri v. Macedonia (no. 39630/09) – Communicated 8 October 2010. Applicant Khaled El-Masri is a German national of Lebanese descent who was born in Kuwait and lives in Germany. In December 2003 he boarded a bus for a visit to Skopje, Macedonia. He alleges the following: At the Serbian/Macedonian border his passport was doubted and his belongings were searched. He was questioned about possible ties with several Islamic organizations. He was driven to a hotel and detained; he was interrogated repeatedly in English, which he does not speak well. His requests to contact the German embassy were denied, and he was threatened by a gun to the head. After seven days of confinement he was offered offered a deal: a return to Germany in exchange for a confession that he was a member of Al-Qaeda. On day 13 of his confinement, he commenced a hunger strike. After 24 days he was filmed and then, handcuffed and blindfolded, was taken to the Skopje airport, where he alleges he was turned over to a CIA “rendition” team. Here he was beaten and stripped and dressed in a diaper and a track suit. Wearing ear muffs and eye pads, blindfolded with a hood over his head, he was shackled and taken aboard an aircraft, where he was restrained and injected with drugs. He was taken not to Germany but to Afghanistan where he suffered further confinement, threats, and torture. In March he commenced, with other inmates, a hunger strike. He was force fed through a tube and became ill. After further incidents he was returned on 29 May to Germany, in very poor physical condition. Since that time he has brought number of legal actions, including a claim in the United States that his mistreatment had been at the hands of the CIA. In 2009 he brought complaints before the ECHR under Articles 3, 5, 8, 10, and 13.