States must effectively investigate allegations of alien abuse and detention conditions
JUDGMENT
Thuo v. Cyprus 04-04-2017 (no. 3869/07)
SUMMARY
Inhuman and degrading treatment. Conditions of detention in a cell pending deportation. The Kenyan applicant was deported from Cyprus to Kenya after he was arrested and detained in a detention center for immigrants in anticipation of his deportation. Referring to Article 3 (prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment), the applicant alleged that he had been mistreated during his deportation and the investigation was ineffective, while complaining under Article 3 regarding his detention conditions pending his deportation for 16 months in a cell unsuitable for long periods of detention. The Court helde that there was a violation of Article 3 only with regard to the ineffective investigation and the conditions of detention, and not of ill-treatment during the deportation process.
PROVISION
Article 3
PRINCIPAL FACTS
Thuo v. Cyprus (no. 3869/07) The applicant, David William Thuo, is a Kenyan national who was born in 1978 and lives in Nairobi (Kenya). The case concerned his complaint about being ill-treated when deported from Cyprus to Kenya as well as about the conditions of his detention pending his deportation.
In 2005 Mr Thuo served a sentence in Cyprus for attempting to travel to London from Larnaca Airport on a forged passport. When released in November 2005, he was immediately re-arrested and placed in immigration detention, in Nicosia Central Prisons, pending his deportation. He was deported about 16 months later, on 9 March 2007, his application for asylum having been rejected.
Mr Thuo alleges that he was ill-treated throughout the deportation process. He submits in particular that immigration officers beat him in Nicosia Central Prison before transporting him to the airport; that he was then beaten and gagged at the airport by men in military uniform, assisted by immigration officers, by them stuffing brown paper into his mouth, which they sealed with airline tape and then secured with bandages wrapped around his head and neck; and, finally, that he remained in this state until the aircraft was near Milan, the first leg of his journey back to Kenya. Once in Kenya, Mr Thuo lodged complaints in December 2007 and February 2008 with the Cypriot authorities, describing in detail the alleged ill-treatment and stating that he could identify three of the officers who had ill-treated him.
An official investigation was launched in July 2009 and statements were taken from Mr Thuo and the accused police officers. Mr Thuo, who returned to Cyprus for the investigation, repeated his allegations, and provided the authorities with a medical certificate issued by a public hospital in Nairobi dated 9 June 2010 according to which he had visited the hospital the day after his deportation and attesting to swelling and bruising to his face and wrists.
The accused officers, who denied any ill-treatment, submitted that – although they had not recorded the incident – they had had to intervene at the airport and use bandages to stop Mr Thuo from hurting himself. At the end of the investigation in July 2010, the authorities, accepting the officers’ testimony that the use of force had been necessary, concluded that Mr Thuo had lied and/or used various stratagems for financial gain or in order to stay in Cyprus. The Attorney General subsequently endorsed these findings and, as a result, neither criminal nor disciplinary action has ever been taken against the accused officers.
THE DECISION OF THE COURT
Relying on Article 3 (prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment), Mr Thuo alleged that he had been ill-treated during his deportation and that the related investigation had been ineffective. He made a further allegation under Article 3, complaining about his conditions of detention pending deportation for 16 months in an overcrowded police cell which had only been designed for short periods of detention.
No violation of Article 3 – on account of alleged ill-treatment during the deportation process
Violation of Article 3 (investigation)
Violation of Article 3 (degrading treatment) – in respect of the conditions of detention from 14 November 2005 to 9 March 2007
Just satisfaction: The applicant did not submit a claim for just satisfaction.
