y hand by a warder and did not bear the applicant's signature. The Court observes that it was open to the Government to submit a photocopy of the corresponding page from the registration log to support their allegation that the applicant had made an entry in the log noting that the injuries had been self-inflicted. However, no such document was presented. The Court finds it peculiar that the Government preferred to submit a handwritten copy made by a facility warder. Furthermore, the Court notes that the Government did not provide any explanation as to how and when the applicant could have injured himself while being interrogated in the Oktyabrskiy District police station. The Court also does not lose sight of the fact that neither the forensic experts nor the hospital doctors recorded any self-inflicted injuries on the applicant's body.
48. Finally, as a way of explaining the applicant's remaining injuries which had been recorded in the hospital report on 12 August 2001 but had not been discovered by the expert on 9 August 2001, the Government merely stated that the injuries had occurred between 9 and 12 August 2001 and thus they could not possibly have resulted from the alleged beating on 7 August 2001. In this connection, the Court firstly notes that the medical expert who examined the applicant on 9 August 2001 did not only fail to record certain of the applicant's injuries, such as an injury to the right kidney, which were later discovered in the hospital on 12 August 2001, but also omitted to mention in his report a slash wound to the applicant's forearm which, as was pointed out by the Government, was sustained on 8 August 2001. Therefore, the Court attaches no evidentiary weight to the fact that certain injuries on the applicant's body were recorded for the first time by the hospital doctors on 12 August 2001. Furthermore, although the effectiveness of the investigation into the applicant's complaints of ill-treatment will be examined below, the Court would already stress at this juncture that it is struck by the fact that the expert examination on 9 August 2001 was ordered by the same police investigator, Ms Z., who had questioned the applicant after his arrest and could have witnessed the alleged beatings (see paragraphs 11 and 13 above). That police investigator also formulated questions to the medical expert. The Court entertains doubts whether this fact could have influenced the expert's findings.
49. The Court further observes that the applicant provided a detailed description of the ill-treatment to which he had allegedly been subjected and indicated its place, time and duration. It notes the consistency of the allegations made by the applicant that he had been ill-treated by police officers while in custody, and the fact that he maintained his allegations whenever he was able to make statements freely before the investigating authorities or the domestic courts. At the same time the Court notes that it was open to the Government to refute the applicant's allegations by providing their own plausible version of events and submitting evidence to corroborate their version. Indeed, the Government did not provide any plausible explanation as to how the applicant had acquired the injuries.
50. In these circumstances, bearing in mind the authorities' obligation to account for injuries caused to persons within their control in custody, and in the absence of a convincing and plausible explanation by the Government in the instant case, the Court considers that it can draw inferences from the Government's conduct and finds it established to the standard of proof required in the Convention proceedings that the injuries sustained by the applicant were the result of the treatment of which he complained and for which the Government bore responsibility (see Selmouni v. France [GC], No. 25803/94, § 88, ECHR 1999-V; Mehmet Emin {Yuksel} v. Turkey,
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