ass disorder or attempts to inflict self-harm (see paragraph 41 below). In the District Court's view, the application of handcuffs had not impaired the applicant's rights, inflicted physical suffering or diminished his honour or dignity.
15. On 10 December 2003 the Altay Regional Court upheld the judgment. It noted that the applicant's deprivation of liberty had been in compliance with Russian law and the Convention because he had been lawfully arrested for the purpose of bringing him before the competent legal authority on reasonable suspicion of having committed an offense.
C. Criminal complaint against police officers
16. In the meantime, in September 2003 the applicant had asked the Altay regional prosecutor to open a criminal case against the police officers who had been allegedly responsible for his unlawful detention and handcuffing.
17. On 29 September 2003 Mr M., an investigator with the Pospelikha district prosecutor's office, refused to institute criminal proceedings. He noted that the Pospelikha district police station possessed no documents or records concerning the applicant's arrest in November 2001. He took a statement from investigator S., who denied that he had ever detained the applicant as a suspect. On the strength of that evidence the investigator concluded that the applicant had not been arrested or detained at the police station from 6 to 8 November 2001.
18. On 23 October 2003 the Pospelikha district prosecutor annulled Mr M.'s decision and asked his deputy, Mr Ch., to resume the inquiry.
19. By a decision of 4 November 2003 Ch. refused to institute criminal proceedings in respect of the applicant's allegations. He had not interviewed the applicant in person but instead quoted his statements to the District Court. He had interviewed investigator S., who had retracted his earlier statement and stated that he had apprehended the applicant as a suspect. A record of the arrest had been properly compiled, but after the applicant's release, he had taken it away from the police station with a view to putting it in the file but had subsequently mislaid it. Mr Ch. also interviewed the director and deputy director of the temporary detention centre, who claimed that the record of the arrest had been properly drafted and that the handcuffs had been applied to prevent self-harm. Two on-duty officers testified in the same vein. Relying on those statements and the findings of the District Court in the civil proceedings (see paragraph 14 above), Mr Ch. determined that the use of handcuffs had been lawful and justified.
20. By a judgment of 11 February 2004 the District Court upheld Ch.'s decision by way of judicial review. It found that the inquiry had been thorough and complete and that sufficient evidence of the lawfulness and reasonableness of the applicant's arrest and handcuffing had been collected. The District Court took note of the certificate from the head of the district police station showing that the record of the arrest and the detention registers for November 2001 had been destroyed after one year's storage. The District Court held in that connection that the "documents had been wrongly destroyed before the expiry of the correct retention period" but that there was no proof of malice on the part of the public officials. In the District Court's view, Ch. had not been required to hear the applicant in person because he had set out his allegations in sufficient detail. Nor had he been required to examine further witnesses, including other detainees, because the statements by police officers had been sufficient. Lastly, the District Court dismissed as insignificant the applicant's argument that the use of handcuffs had not been recorded in any reports, as required by domestic law.
21. On 30 September 2004 the Regional Court upheld the judgment.
> 1 2 3 4 ... 17 18 19
Zaki.ru законы и право
поиск по сайту
каталог документов
добавить сайт Zaki.ru в избранное
Правовые акты международные
Правовые акты Российской Федерации
