CASE OF KOROVINY v. RUSSIA
Violation of Article 3 - Prohibition of torture (Article 3 - Degrading treatment;Inhuman treatment) (Substantive aspect);Violation of Article 3 - Prohibition of torture (Article 3 - Degrading treatment;Inhuman treatment) (Substantive aspect);Violation of Article 6 - Right to a fair trial (Article 6 - Civil proceedings;Article 6-1 - Fair hearing);Violation of Article 8 - Right to respect for private and family life (Article 8-1 - Respect for correspondence)
Dmitry Dedov;Erik Møse;Isabelle Berro-Lefèvre;Julia Laffranque;Linos-Alexandre Sicilianos;Paulo Pinto De Albuquerque;Ksenija Turković
6. The applicants were born in 1989 and 1954 respectively and live in Kazan. 7. On 9 June 2009 the first applicant was arrested in connection with a drug-related offence, and on 10 June 2009 he was detained in custody. 8. On 29 July 2009 a forensic psychiatric examination found that the first applicant was suffering from schizophrenia requiring compulsory psychiatric treatment. 9. On 3 August 2009 the Sovetskiy District Court of Kazan (“the District Court”) extended the first applicant’s detention until 9 September 2009. 10. On 28 August 2009 the District Court further extended the first applicant’s detention until 9 October 2009. On 8 September 2009 the Supreme Court of the Republic of Tatarstan (“the Supreme Court”) upheld the above extension order on appeal. 11. On 15 December 2009 the District Court relieved the first applicant of criminal responsibility, finding that he was mentally incapacitated. The District Court ordered the application of compulsory measures of a medical nature to the applicant and his admission to a general psychiatric hospital (психиатрический стационар общего типа). The District Court further decided that he should remain in custody until the entering into force of its decision and his admission to the psychiatric hospital. 12. On 19 January 2010 the first applicant was admitted to V.M. Bekhterev Republican Clinical Psychiatric Hospital (Республиканская клиническая психиатрическая больница им. Бехтерева – hereinafter “V.M. Bekhterev Psychiatric Hospital”). 13. After attempting to escape from the hospital on 21 April 2010, he was held for a week, until 28 April 2010, in a ward measuring approximately 5 sq. m, with no windows, no ventilation, around-the-clock artificial lighting, and a bucket instead of a lavatory pan, emptied twice every twenty-four hours. 14. On 21 May 2010 the administration of V.M. Bekhterev Psychiatric Hospital submitted a request for the first applicant to be transferred to a specialist psychiatric hospital under intensive supervision (психиатрический стационар специализированного типа с интенсивным наблюдением). The request was supported by a report of the same date drawn up following an examination of the first applicant by a panel of three of the hospital’s psychiatrists. The report read as follows: “... [The first applicant] suffers from a chronic psychiatric disorder in the form of pseudo-psychotic schizophrenia aggravated by multiple drug addiction. While under compulsory psychiatric treatment, [the latter] systematically breaches hospital rules, surrounds himself with antisocial patients, sets them against hospital personnel, disrupts the work of the department, [and] refuses treatment. [The first applicant] escaped from hospital and incites other patients to do so; [he] smuggles in prohibited items, including [those for] cutting. In view of the foregoing, the panel considers it necessary to recommend changing the form of compulsory medical treatment in respect of the [first applicant] from compulsory treatment in a general psychiatric hospital to [treatment in] a specialist psychiatric hospital under intensive supervision.” 15. Basing its decision on the report prepared by the hospital’s psychiatrists, on 4 June 2010 the District Court granted the hospital’s request. The first applicant was not taken to the hearing. His legal guardian (the second applicant) and his lawyer were not informed of the hearing. 16. On 16 June 2010 the first applicant was transferred to Kazan Specialist Psychiatric Hospital under Intensive Supervision (Казанская психиатрическая больница специализированного типа с интенсивным наблюдением – hereinafter “Kazan Specialist Psychiatric Hospital”). 17. On 29 July 2010 the first applicant had a dispute with another mental health patient of Kazan Specialist Psychiatric Hospital during which he hit that patient. 18. On 30 July 2010 the first applicant was isolated and physical restraints were used to attach him to his bed for twenty-four hours. 19. In the meantime, on 17 June 2010 the second applicant appealed against the decision of 4 June 2010. 20. On 30 July 2010 the Supreme Court quashed the decision of 4 June 2010 on appeal, because the applicants had not been duly notified of the hearing. The case was remitted for fresh consideration by a different bench. The first applicant remained in Kazan Specialist Psychiatric Hospital. 21. On 23 August 2010 the District Court again ordered the first applicant’s transfer to a specialist psychiatric hospital under intensive supervision. The first applicant was not allowed to attend the hearing, but the second applicant and the lawyer were present. 22. On 5 October 2010 the Supreme Court quashed the decision of 23 August 2010 on appeal, as the hearing had taken place in the first applicant’s absence. The case was remitted for fresh consideration by a different bench. 23. On 25 October 2010 the District Court held an off-site court hearing at the premises of Kazan Specialist Psychiatric Hospital. The court once again ordered the first applicant’s transfer to a specialist psychiatric hospital under intensive supervision. Both applicants and the lawyer were present. They submitted that the first applicant’s confinement in the hospital had been unlawful in the absence of a final court decision and asked the court to order an independent forensic medical examination to determine the effect of intensive therapy on his mental condition, but to no avail. The court decided that there was consistent evidence that the first applicant’s disorder persisted and that its aggravation required treatment in a specialist psychiatric hospital under intensive supervision. 24. In the meantime the second applicant challenged before the prosecutor’s office the lawfulness of the first applicant’s confinement in the specialist psychiatric hospital in the absence of a final court decision on the matter. 25. On 3 November 2010 she received a reply from the Republic of Tatarstan Prosecutor’s Office (no. 12-672-10), acknowledging the unlawfulness of the first applicant’s confinement in Kazan Specialist Psychiatric Hospital since 16 June 2010 in the absence of a final judicial decision on his transfer. 26. On 13 December 2010 the first applicant was transferred back to V.M. Bekhterev Psychiatric Hospital. 27. On 24 December 2010 the Supreme Court quashed the decision of 25 October 2010 on appeal. The case was remitted for fresh consideration by a different bench. 28. On 20 January 2011 the District Court decided not to order the first applicant’s transfer to a specialist psychiatric hospital under intensive supervision, as there was insufficient evidence that he represented any particular threat to himself or society. 29. On 4 March 2011, however, the Supreme Court quashed the decision of 20 January 2011 on appeal and remitted the case for fresh consideration. 30. On 5 April 2011 the District Court again ordered the applicant’s transfer to a specialist psychiatric hospital under intensive supervision. A request for the court to order independent comprehensive medical and psychiatric examinations in respect of the first applicant was dismissed. 31. On 20 May 2011 the Supreme Court upheld the decision of 5 April 2011 on appeal. 32. On 9 July 2011 the first applicant was transferred to Kazan Specialist Psychiatric Hospital. 33. On 8 June 2011 the District Court extended the application of compulsory measures of a medical nature to the first applicant and his treatment in a specialist psychiatric hospital under intensive supervision. The court relied on a report of a medical examination of the first applicant, carried out on 10 November 2010 by Kazan Specialist Psychiatric Hospital. 34. On 9 August 2011 the Supreme Court quashed the above decision on appeal, having noted that the District Court had failed to obtain the first applicant’s medical file and to address arguments by the second applicant as to the validity of the report drawn up over six months earlier. 35. On 9 September 2011 the District Court, having complied with the instruction of the Supreme Court, extended the application of compulsory measures of a medical nature to the first applicant and his treatment in a specialist psychiatric hospital under intensive supervision. 36. On 21 October 2011 the Supreme Court quashed the above decision on appeal and remitted the matter for fresh consideration, on account of the absence of a more recent medical report in respect of the first applicant. 37. On 22 November 2011 the District Court, having examined, inter alia, the newly prepared report of 10 November 2011, extended the application of compulsory measures of a medical nature to the first applicant and his treatment in a specialist psychiatric hospital under intensive supervision. The request submitted by the second applicant for the court to order an independent forensic psychiatric examination in respect of the first applicant was dismissed. 38. On 10 January 2012 the Supreme Court upheld the above decision on appeal. 39. On 27 May 2011 the second applicant brought a compensation claim on behalf of her son and herself against the Ministry of Finance, alleging that the proceedings concerning the first applicant’s transfer to a specialist psychiatric hospital under intensive supervision had been excessively lengthy, having lasted from 21 May 2010 until 20 May 2011 (see paragraphs 14-31 above). 40. On 26 July 2011 the Supreme Court dismissed the applicants’ claim as groundless. 41. On 22 September 2011 the Appeal Section of the Supreme Court upheld the above judgment on appeal. 42. On 25 October 2011 the second applicant brought a compensation claim on behalf of her son and herself against Kazan Specialist Psychiatric Hospital for damage incurred as a result of the first applicant being unlawfully confined in the hospital between 16 June and 13 December 2010 (see paragraphs 16-26 above), unlawfully administered intensive therapy in the above period, and unlawfully tied to his bed from 30 July to 31 July 2010 after an incident with another patient (see paragraphs 17-18 above). She also alleged that her son’s correspondence had been censored, that she had been refused access to his medical file, and that the conditions of his confinement had been substandard. 43. On 23 December 2011 the District Court dismissed the applicants’ claim as unsubstantiated. The court established that until October 2010 the administration of Kazan Specialist Psychiatric Hospital had not been aware that the decision of 4 June 2010, pursuant to which the second applicant had been transferred there, had been quashed on appeal. The court held that on 25 October 2010 the first applicant had undergone a medical examination by a medical panel, who had concluded that he needed continued compulsory treatment in that hospital. It held that the first applicant’s somatic state remained satisfactory and that he received medication allowed in the Russian Federation. The court further held that psychiatric patients’ medical documents had only been accessible to hospital medical staff, hospital administration, representatives of supervising health authorities, prosecution and investigation authorities and the court. The remaining aspects of the first applicant’s confinement in Kazan Specialist Psychiatric Hospital remained unaddressed by the court. 44. The second applicant appealed against the above decision, noting in particular the domestic court’s failure to address her complaints regarding the conditions of the first applicant’s confinement in Kazan Specialist Psychiatric Hospital, the incident involving him being tied to his bed, and censorship of her and her son’s correspondence by the hospital administration. 45. On 6 February 2012 the Supreme Court upheld the above judgment on appeal, without addressing the issues which had remained unexamined by the first-instance court. The hearing was held in public, although the second applicant had not agreed to public disclosure of the first applicant’s medical diagnoses and the contents of her correspondence with him. 46. On 21 November 2012 the District Court granted the application lodged by Kazan Specialist Psychiatric Hospital and changed the form of the first applicant’s compulsory psychiatric treatment from confinement in a specialist psychiatric hospital under intensive supervision to outpatient compulsory monitoring and psychiatrist treatment. 47. On 3 December 2012 the first applicant was discharged from Kazan Specialist Psychiatric Hospital. 48. As indicated above, from 16 June to 13 December 2010 and from 9 July 2011 to 3 December 2012 the first applicant was detained in Kazan Specialist Psychiatric Hospital. 49. The first applicant claimed to have been confined in a ward measuring 20 sq. m with between eleven to thirteen other mental health patients at one time, the majority of whom had suffered from severe psychiatric disorders accompanied with symptoms such as delirium and hallucinations. He claimed to have been confined to the ward for most of the day (except for approximately five hours when inmates were taken to eat, walk or watch TV). 50. The first applicant alleged that there had been no lavatory or sink in the ward. He submitted, in particular, that the inmates had had to use a bucket for a toilet which had been emptied by the hospital staff twice a day and which had caused a disgusting smell in the ward. 51. Shower use had been restricted to once a fortnight. 52. The first applicant’s correspondence with his mother, the second applicant, had been opened and subjected to censorship by the hospital administration. 53. Throughout his stay in Kazan Specialist Psychiatric Hospital the first applicant had been held for treatment in five different wards: ward no. 8 of department no. 1, ward nos. 56 and 57 of department no. 6, ward no. 102 of department no. 8, and ward no. 140 of department no. 12. The dates of the first applicant’s stay in these wards, the size of the wards and the number of patients held with the first applicant are given in the table below: 54. The Government noted with regret that the measurements of the wards where the first applicant underwent inpatient treatment indeed failed to meet the statutory standards, namely a minimum of 7 sq. m per patient in wards of a specialist psychiatric facility (see paragraph 59 below). 55. The Government further noted that the number of beds per ward considerably exceeded the domestic requirement of no more than four per ward (see paragraph 60 below). 56. Throughout his stay in the hospital the first applicant, like all other hospital patients, had been confined to the ward for most of the day. He had been taken out of the ward to undergo medical procedures, consult a psychologist, have a bath, help out at a concert, eat, watch TV and go for a daily walk outside (1.5 hours twice a day during summer and 1.5 hours a day during autumn and winter). 57. All the departments where the first applicant had been confined had separate lavatories, but were not equipped with shower rooms. 58. The Government informed the Court that, in connection with the present application, in October 2012 a committee consisting of representatives of the Republic of Tatarstan Prosecutor’s Office, the Department of Federal Public Health Service and the Department of Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection and Human Welfare had inspected Kazan Specialist Psychiatric Hospital. Following this inspection, which confirmed the applicant’s allegations of overcrowding in the wards, the Russian Ministry of Public Health and Social Development granted 4,935,000 Russian roubles to extend building no. 3 of the hospital, so that an additional forty-four beds could be accommodated.