witnesses with a view to clarifying specific details of the sequence and timing of how events unfolded, conducting face-to-face confrontations between those witnesses who gave conflicting testimony, seeking to identify and question other eyewitnesses to the incident, such as, for example, counsel for the applicant and his co-defendants, court clerks or ushers who were present in the court building at the material time, examining the location in which the incident took place or carrying out a forensic simulation in order to reconstruct the circumstances of the incident and verify the statements by the witnesses. The investigating authorities' failure to take the above steps contributed to the investigation's inability to produce a complete and detailed factual picture of the incident (see, for similar reasoning, Mikayil Mammadov v. Azerbaijan, No. 4762/05, § 129, 17 December 2009).
171. Further, the Court observes that the prosecutor's decision of 15 July 2002 refusing to open criminal proceedings against the escorts was scarcely reasoned. The prosecutor merely cited the witness statements collected without attempting to reconcile the contradictions between them or even stating which of the versions of the events he considered to be accurate. The decision did not contain any reasoning pertaining to the establishment or evaluation of the facts. The prosecutor simply found, without giving any reasons for that finding, that the escorts had lawfully assaulted the applicant and his co-defendants in response to their failure to comply with the escorts' legitimate order. The Court also does not lose sight of the fact that the prosecutor did not embark on an assessment of the proportionality of the force used against the applicant. He did not endeavour to analyse the degree of force used by the escorts or whether it was necessary in the circumstances and proportionate to the alleged misconduct of the applicant. The prosecuting authorities' failure to provide sufficient reasons for the refusal to open criminal proceedings must be considered to be a particularly serious shortcoming in the investigation.
172. Finally, the Court considers that the judicial proceedings initiated by the applicant did not remedy the defects of the investigation identified above. The domestic courts in their conclusions relied heavily on the findings made by the prosecutor in his decision of 15 July 2002. Neither the Sovetskiy District Court nor the Lipetsk Regional Court questioned personally the escorts, the applicant, the eyewitnesses mentioned in the decision or any additional witnesses, or examined any other evidence. Given that the courts did not make any independent establishment or evaluation of the facts, the Court concludes that the judicial proceedings were not sufficiently effective.
173. In the light of the foregoing, the Court finds that the authorities failed to carry out an effective criminal investigation into the incident of 27 June 2002.
(c) Conclusion
174. The Court has found that on 27 June 2002 the applicant was ill-treated by the escorts in the building of the Lipetsk Regional Court and that the official inquiry into his allegations of ill-treatment was ineffective. It therefore concludes that there has been a violation of Article 3 of the Convention under its substantive and procedural limbs.
IV. Alleged violation of Article 13 of the Convention
175. The applicant complained that the investigations into his allegations of ill-treatment by the police in January to April 2001 and by the escorts on 27 June 2002 had been ineffective contrary to Article 13 of the Convention, which provides:
"Everyone whose rights and freedoms as set forth in [the] Convention are violated shall have an effective remedy before a national authority notwithstanding that the violation has been committed by persons acting in an official c
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