CASE OF DUSHKA v. UKRAINE
Violation of Art. 3
Ganna Yudkivska;Isabelle Berro-Lefèvre;Julia Laffranque;Karel Jungwiert;Mark Villiger;Mirjana Lazarova Trajkovska;Peer Lorenzen
6. The applicant was born in 1985 and lived in Bilgorod-Dnistrovsky. 7. In the early morning on 18 November 2002, responding to P.'s complaint about having been robbed, the police arrived in a bar and arrested the applicant, a minor at the material time, and V., his acquaintance, and took them to the police station for questioning. The applicant explained that he knew nothing about the robbery and left the police station. It is unclear whether he was officially released. 8. At about noon on 18 November 2002 the applicant was arrested when walking down a street. According to the applicant, he was seized by force by two policemen dressed in civilian clothes, without any explanations. According to the police officers, they invited him for questioning concerning P.'s robbery and he swore at them and attempted to escape, making it necessary to arrest him by force. 9. On the same date the applicant was charged with refusal to comply with the lawful demands of the police officers, presented before the Bilgorod-Dnistrovsky Court without his parents being informed or a lawyer being appointed, and sentenced to seven days' administrative detention. 10. On 19 November 2002 the police formally initiated criminal proceedings concerning P.'s robbery. 11. On 21 November 2002 the Bilgorod-Dnistrovsky Court reviewed the applicant's sentence after an objection from the Bilgorod-Dnistrovsky Prosecutor, reduced it to three days' detention and ordered the applicant's release. Subsequently (on 4 January 2003) the President of the Odessa Regional Court of Appeal quashed the decisions of 18 and 21 November 2002 by way of supervisory review, having found that the applicant should not have been subjected to administrative detention as he was a minor. He did find, however, that the applicant's malicious insubordination rendered him liable to a fine of 136 hryvnias (UAH). 12. Before his release on 21 November 2002, the applicant was questioned concerning P.'s robbery, in the presence of his mother and a lawyer appointed by the police, and confessed to having participated in the robbery. 13. Following his release, the applicant hired a new lawyer and retracted his confessions. He alleged that he had neither participated in, nor witnessed P.'s alleged robbery and that his previous confessions had been made under duress. He further explained that on 21 November 2002 he had confirmed his confession in presence of his mother and the advocate because the police had threatened that otherwise he would not be released from detention. 14. In December 2003 the applicant was committed for trial on charges of robbery. On 3 May 2005 the Bilgorod-Dnistrovsky Court remitted his case for additional investigation. The parties did not provide any further information concerning the outcome of the criminal proceedings. 15. According to the applicant, while he was serving his administrative detention sentence he was severely ill-treated by police officers, who tried to make him confess to participating in P.'s robbery. In particular, he was handcuffed to a radiator and beaten on the head and body with a plastic water bottle. On several occasions the applicant lost consciousness. As a result of the ill-treatment, on 18 and 19 November 2002 the applicant, who had not been given access to either a lawyer or his parents, wrote self-incriminating statements, dictated by the police. By way of evidence that he was so questioned, the applicant presented copies of his confession statements dated 18 and 19 November 2002. These documents contained his and the law-enforcement officers' signatures only (no signatures of an advocate or a minor's legal representative) and a seal of the BilgorodDnistrovsky Prosecutor's Office. 16. According to the Government, no investigative actions in the applicant's respect took place during his administrative detention. 17. According to the applicant, on 22 November 2002 he complained to the Bilgorod-Dnistrovsky and Odessa Regional Prosecutors' Offices that he had been ill-treated by the police, but he was denied referral to a forensic expert to assess his injuries. 18. On 23 November 2002 the Internal Security Service of the Ministry of the Interior agreed to provide the applicant with the necessary referral. On the same day the applicant underwent a forensic examination and was found to have minor bodily injuries. In particular, the expert found that the applicant suffered from abrasions and bruises on different parts of his body, a haematoma, situational neurosis, cephalalgia and a possible kidney contusion, which could have been sustained on 18 November 2002. 19. Between 26 November and 20 December 2002 the applicant received in-patient treatment for his injuries and stress in the BilgorodDnistrovsky District Hospital. Subsequently (in 2003-2004) the applicant also underwent medical treatment for depression and chronic pyelonephritis, conditions which, according to him, were caused by head and kidney injuries sustained at the hands of the police and related stress. 20. On various dates between 22 November 2002 and 1 April 2003 the applicant's mother complained about his ill-treatment to various authorities, including the ombudsman and the President of Ukraine, in various informal ways. However, it appears that no formal action followed. 21. On 1 April 2003 the applicant lodged an official request with the Bilgorod-Dnistrovsky Inter-District Prosecutor's Office to institute criminal proceedings in respect of his ill-treatment. 22. On 11 April 2003 the prosecutor's office refused to initiate the criminal proceedings, having found that there was no evidence of illtreatment. It noted, in particular, that on the morning of 18 November 2002 the applicant had left the police station without authorisation and that at noon on the same day he had refused to follow the police officers who invited him to report for questioning, had sworn at them, pushed them and attempted to escape. His arrest and the bringing of insubordination charges had therefore been justified. Moreover, during his detention the applicant had never requested medical assistance and upon his release he had signed a document stating that he had no claims against the police. No investigative measures in the applicant's respect had been taken during the period of his detention. 23. On 15 April 2003 the Deputy Head of the Bilgorod-Dnistrovsky Department of the Ministry of the Interior conducted an internal investigation and concluded that there was no ill-treatment case to answer. In particular, the only force applied to the applicant had been during his arrest and in response to his attempt to escape. He further noted that during the applicant's detention no investigative action had been taken in his respect. On 18 September 2003 and 1 April 2004 two other internal investigations were carried out and similar conclusions were reached. 24. On 10 January 2004 the Bilgorod-Dnistrovsky Prosecutor's Office took a fresh decision refusing to initiate criminal proceedings concerning the applicant's ill-treatment complaint. It noted that the applicant had fallen to the ground on several occasions while trying to escape. It made no conclusions, however, as to whether or not these falls were the cause of the applicant's injuries. On the same date that decision was quashed by the Odessa Regional Prosecutor's Office and the case was remitted for additional investigation. 25. In the meantime, having been notified of the decision of 11 April 2003 in October 2003, the applicant appealed against it before the BilgorodDnistrovsky Court. He noted, in particular, that the prosecutor's office had not questioned him, his relatives or any witnesses to his arrest concerning the events in question. It also failed to respond to his allegation that there was no legal basis for the demand to appear for questioning and his ensuing arrest at noon on 18 November 2002. If the police officers had wanted to question him about P.'s robbery, according to the applicable law they should have issued a summons and informed his parents. This procedure had not been complied with; the police had unlawfully demanded that he follow them, so he should not have been convicted of insubordination. Further, the prosecutor's office had not reacted to the fact that the applicant's administrative detention had been unlawful as he had been a minor at the material time. In addition, the authorities had wrongly stated that no investigative action involving the applicant had been taken during his detention. In particular, on 18 and 19 November 2002 he had made self-incriminating statements. 26. On 15 January 2004 the Bilgorod-Dnistrovsky City Court annulled the decision of 11 April 2003. It stated, in particular, that the investigation had been perfunctory and that the prosecution had failed to establish the cause of the applicant's injuries. It further noted that the allegation that the applicant had not been questioned concerning P.'s robbery during his detention contradicted the factual evidence contained in the case-file materials. 27. On 9 February and 2 March 2004 the Bilgorod-Dnistrovsky Prosecutor's Office again refused to institute criminal proceedings into the applicant's ill-treatment allegations, relying on essentially the same arguments as above. 28. On 20 February and 6 March 2004 respectively those decisions were set aside by the Odessa Regional Prosecutor's Office and the General Prosecutor's Office, and the case was remitted for further investigation. The General Prosecutor's Office noted, in particular, that the investigation had not determined what legal basis there had been for the police officers' initial demand of 18 November 2002 that the applicant report for questioning, or whether the applicant's reaction vis-à-vis the police necessitated his arrest and the use of force against him. Further, the authorities had not questioned the applicant or the medical expert who had examined his injuries and had not verified the police officers' version that the applicant had fallen several times while trying to escape. 29. On 22 March 2004 the Odessa Regional Prosecutor's Office also addressed a letter to the Bilgorod-Dnistrovsky Prosecutor, alerting him that the investigation was perfunctory and one-sided. In particular, it was largely based on the explanations given by the police officers, without any other measures being taken to establish the real facts. It further invited the Bilgorod-Dnistrovsky Prosecutor to facilitate “a proper and professional investigation”. 30. On 5 April 2004 the Bilgorod-Dnistrovsky Prosecutor's Office took a fresh decision not to institute criminal proceedings, which was set aside by the Odessa Regional Prosecutor's Office on 15 November 2004 and followed by a new refusal on 14 December 2004. 31. On 27 January 2005 the Odessa Regional Forensic Experts Bureau re-assessed the applicant's injuries as being of 'intermediate gravity'. In particular, it concluded that his depressive disorders and pyelonephritis could be connected to a traumatic experience in November 2002. It further concluded that, in view of their number and location, the injuries concerned could not have been sustained as a result of a single fall. It was likely that the injuries at issue had been caused by multiple impacts with blunt objects, such as a fist, a foot or the like. 32. Following this assessment, on 5 September 2005 the BilgorodDnistrovsky District Court set aside the decision of 2 March 2004 refusing to initiate criminal proceedings (which had already been annulled by the General Prosecutor's Office on 6 March 2004) and ordered further investigation. 33. On 23 March 2006 the Bilgorod-Dnistrovsky Prosecutor's Office refused to comply with the court's instructions, finding that further to the annulment of the decision of 2 March 2004 by the General Prosecutor's Office, it had already carried out additional investigations, and its last decision of 14 December 2004 was valid. 34. On 26 May 2006 the Odessa Regional Prosecutor's Office annulled that decision and ordered further investigation. 35. On 5 June 2006 the Bilgorod-Dnistrovsky Prosecutor's Office took a fresh decision not to institute criminal proceedings, relying essentially on the same arguments as in its previous refusals. 36. The relevant domestic law can be found in the judgment in the case of Kozinets v. Ukraine (no. 75520/01, §§ 39-42, 6 December 2007).