Complaint about police violence during the arrest and the court trial
JUDGMENT
Sergey Ryabov v. Russia 17.07.2018 (no. 2674/07)
SUMMARY
Police violence and abuse of an arrested person for murder both during his arrest and after being examined by the Judge. In particular, he reported being beaten and kicked, while multiple bruises were seen in his body. He claimed on the basis of Article 3 that he had been subjected to mistreatment and in Article 6 § 1 that the conviction was unfair because it was based on pressured testimonies. Infringement of Article 3 and Article 6 § 1
PROVISIONS
Article 3
Article 6 § 1
PRINCIPAL FACTS
The case concerned an allegation of police brutality.
The applicant, Sergey Ryabov, is a Russian national who was born in 1980. He is currently serving a
prison sentence in Bezhetsk, Tver Region (Russia), for, among other things, the murder of a driver
who worked for the Ruza police.
Mr Ryabov was arrested on 11 July 2005, a day after the murder, and placed in a temporary
detention facility at Ruza district police station. He confessed to the crime in the early hours of the
morning and was brought before a judge the next day. He was placed in pre-trial detention until
being found guilty in April 2006 and sentenced to 18 years’ imprisonment. In convicting him, the
courts relied on his confession and the investigating authorities’ refusal to open a criminal case into
his allegations of police ill-treatment. His appeals against this decision were dismissed and the
proceedings were ultimately terminated in February 2008.
A criminal investigation was never begun into Mr Ryabov’s allegations that the police had punched,
kicked and hit him during his arrest and police custody and at the courthouse following the hearing
with the judge. An internal inquiry was carried out, which resulted in two police officers being
reprimanded and a medical report being drawn up, finding multiple bruises and abrasions on his
body. The authorities concluded however that those injuries could have occurred because he had
resisted arrest.
Relying on Article 3 (prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment), Mr Ryabov alleged that he had
been ill-treated by the Ruza police in order to make him confess to the murder and that no effective
investigation had been carried out into his allegations. Also relying on Article 6 § 1 (right to a fair
trial), he complained that his conviction had been unfair because it had been based on statements
he had made under duress.
THE DECISION OF THE COURT
Violation of Article 3 (inhuman and degrading treatment)
Violation of Article 3 (investigation)
Violation of Article 6 § 1
Just satisfaction: EUR 10,000 (non-pecuniary damage) and EUR 2,000 (costs and expenses)(echrcaselaw.com editing).
