The applicant, Maşallah Öneryıldız, is a Turkish national who was born in 1955. At the material time he was living with 12 close relatives in the slum quarter of Kazım Karabekir in Ümraniye (Istanbul).
The Kazım Karabekir area was part of an expanse of rudimentary dwellings built without any authorisation on land surrounding a rubbish tip which had been used jointly by four district councils since the 1970s, under the authority and responsibility of Istanbul City Council. An expert report drawn up on 7 May 1991 at the request of Üsküdar District Court, to which the matter had been referred by Ümraniye District Council, drew the authorities’ attention to, among other things, the fact that no measures had been taken at the tip in question to prevent an explosion of the methane generated by the decomposing refuse. The report gave rise to a series of disputes between the mayors concerned. However, before the proceedings instituted by either of them had been concluded, a methane explosion occurred at the tip on 28 April 1993 and the refuse erupting from the pile of waste engulfed more than ten houses situated below it, including the one belonging to the applicant, who lost nine close relatives.
After criminal and administrative investigations had been carried out into the case, the mayors of Ümraniye and Istanbul were brought before the courts, the former for failing to comply with his duty to order the destruction of the illegal huts surrounding the rubbish tip, and the latter for failing to renovate the tip or order its closure, in spite of the conclusions of the expert report of 7 May 1991. On 4 April 1996 the mayors in question were both convicted of “negligence in the performance of their duties” and were both fined 160,000 Turkish liras (TRL) and sentenced to the minimum three-month term of imprisonment provided for in Article 230 of the Criminal Code. Their sentences were subsequently commuted to fines, the enforcement of which was suspended.
The applicant subsequently brought an action for damages in his own name and on behalf of his three surviving children in the Istanbul Administrative Court, holding the authorities liable for the death of his relatives and the destruction of his property. In a judgment of 30 November 1995 the authorities were ordered to pay the applicant and his children TRL 100,000,000 for non-pecuniary damage and TRL 10,000,000 for pecuniary damage in respect of the destruction of household goods (equivalent at the material time to approximately EUR 2,077 and EUR 208 respectively). Those amounts have yet to be paid to the applicant, and he does not appear to have instituted enforcement proceedings.
The applicant relied on Art. 2 (right to life), Art. 6§1 (right to a fair trial), Art. 8 (right to respect for private and family life), Art. 13 (Right to an effective remedy) of the European Convention on Human Rights and Art. 1 of Protocol No.1 (Protection of property).
The Court judged that there was a violation of Art. 2, 13 and Art. 1 of Protocol No. 1. The Court considered that no separate issue arose from Art. 6§1 or Art. 8
English
Jurisdiction:
Council of Europe - European Court of Human Rights
Article 2 - Right to life
Article 13 - Right to an effective remedy
Article 1 Protocol 1 - Protection of property
Subject:
Squats and slums
