CASE OF DMITRIYEV v. RUSSIA
Violation of Article 13 - Right to an effective remedy (Article 13 - Effective remedy);Violation of Article 3 - Prohibition of torture (Article 3 - Degrading treatment) (Substantive aspect)
Branko Lubarda;Georgios A. Serghides;Pere Pastor Vilanova
6. The applicant was born in 1974 and is detained in the Tomsk Region. 7. On 2 December 2007 the applicant was arrested on suspicion of murder and two days later was placed in remand prison no. IZ-70/1 in Tomsk. On 13 November 2008 he was found guilty and sentenced to eleven years’ imprisonment. The conviction was upheld on appeal. Since 18 February 2009, save for short periods of detention in the remand prison, the applicant has been held in correctional colonies nos. 2 and 4 in the Tomsk Region. 8. The applicant submitted that during his pre-trial detention he had not been examined by a dentist and had not received any dental treatment because, as he had been informed, the remand prison neither possessed any dental equipment nor employed a dentist. The only alternative to treatment had been tooth extraction by a doctor who visited the facility once or twice a month. While in the correctional colony, the applicant had been unable to obtain any dental treatment for extended periods of time because the dental drill and Xray scanner were broken. Moreover, the colony’s dentist was habitually either on holiday or away attending training courses. The applicant produced statements written by five inmates with whom he had been detained in the same penal institutions from 2007-2014. The statements corroborated his account of the lack of effective dental treatment. 9. The applicant also submitted that he had received dental treatment for the first time on 8 June 2011 in the correctional colony. Since that time, he had undergone scaling and cleaning procedures, and extraction of teeth, but had not been prescribed any painkillers for the toothache he was suffering. Although the applicant was diagnosed with periodontitis on 19 February 2009, it was not until 20 November 2013 that treatment of the disease had been prescribed. 10. During his detention the applicant lost nine teeth in total. He was unable to obtain orthodontic treatment even at his own expense. He had therefore asked a fellow inmate to make him temporary metal dental prostheses to replace several teeth, but they did not fit well. On 23 December 2014 the applicant had been examined by a visiting dentist from another correctional colony who recommended examination by a specialist dentist once released. 11. The applicant also submitted several photos of his oral cavity dated 2 February and 28 April 2014, which showed that he had lost at least two front teeth within the given timespan. A medical certificate issued by the applicant’s dentist on 27 June 2014 confirmed the presence of dental prostheses for eight teeth and the absence of another ten. Another dentist’s certificate of 24 March 2016 showed that there were thirteen teeth missing in total. 12. The applicant brought the issue of inadequate medical treatment to the attention of various domestic authorities, including the head of the remand prison, the Tomsk regional prosecutor’s office, and the Federal Service of Execution of Sentences (“the FSIN”), but all to no avail. 13. The Government submitted that the applicant had undergone medical examinations in each penal facility and had been provided with the requisite medical treatment. They relied, in particular, upon certificates issued by the director of prison hospital no. 70 of Tomsk and the director of correctional colony no. 2, extracts from the applicant’s medical file, lists of medicines and medical appliances available at the respective penal institutions, staff lists, and the penal institutions’ medical licences. 14. The applicant’s medical file contained the following entries. On 19 February 2009 the applicant was examined by a dentist for the first time after his placement in detention on 4 December 2007, and he was diagnosed with periodontitis. On 30 December 2010 the dentist concluded that “the oral cavity required sanitisation”. On 3 February 2011 the applicant raised his dental problems during a visit to the head of the medical unit but there was no entry in the medical file indicating that the applicant’s complaint had been investigated. On 2 March 2011 the dentist recommended extraction and further treatment of teeth to the applicant. Four days later an exacerbation of his chronic periodontitis was diagnosed and one tooth was extracted. Eleven days later the applicant was informed that he could have dental prostheses fitted at his own expense. Between 3 June and 20 July 2011 he visited the dentist on seven occasions, during which he was diagnosed with gingivitis of the front teeth and dental caries, three permanent dental fillings were put in, the gingivitis was treated and the tartar build-up was removed. On 1 and 8 December 2011 the dentist diagnosed the applicant as having chronic periodontitis and found that the oral cavity required sanitisation. The cleaning procedure was performed eight months later. On 20 November 2013 the applicant was diagnosed with inflammatory degenerative periodontitis and received treatment for it. Between 20 March and 5 May 2014 the dentist again confirmed the diagnosis, prescribed treatment and extracted three teeth. 15. Between 10 July and 7 August 2014 the applicant visited the medical unit three times and asked for dental prostheses. It was explained that such treatment could be provided at the applicant’s own expense. Meanwhile the dentist confirmed the diagnosis of inflammatory degenerative periodontitis, prescribed treatment, extracted another tooth, removed a dental bridge and cleaned the tartar build-up. 16. On 23 December 2014 the applicant was examined by two dentists, who confirmed the partial absence of teeth in both jaws, with some of them being replaced by metal prostheses. They did not diagnose periodontitis and concluded that the applicant did not require orthodontic treatment. A dentist who carried out a checkup on 22 October 2015 arrived at the same conclusions, but noted some teeth missing on the upper jaw only. The applicant was found to be “apparently healthy”. 17. The Government did not contest the veracity of the statements made by the applicant’s former cellmates.