Waiting 10 hours outside a police station for a disabled person consists of humiliating treatment
JUDGMENT
Shalyavski κ.α. v. Bulgaria 15-06-2017 (no. 67608/11)
SUMMARY
People with disabilities. Distinctive treatment. Long waiting outside the police station. Staying disabled for a 10-hour period in a car outside the police station awaiting police action consists of degrading treatment and hence a violation of Article 3 of the ECHR, as this behavior has caused physical pain and public humiliation to the applicant.
PROVISION
Artilce 3
PRINCIPAL FACTS
The applicants are a Bulgarian family: Ventsislav Shalyavski and Silvia Kotseva, and their son and daughter, Martin Kotsev and Yoana Shalyavska. They were born in 1966, 1967, 1988 and 2003 respectively and live in Blagoevgrad (Bulgaria). The case concerned the alleged ill-treatment of Ventsislav Shalyavski, who was heavily disabled, when he had been made to wait for ten hours outside a police station in his car in order to have charges brought against him for usury.
On 7 April 2011, Mr Shalyavski, who has muscular dystrophy and can only move his head and hands, was left immobilised in a car in front of a police station while the investigation authorities searched his home and other premises as well as carried out the necessary formalities for bringing charges against him. During this time his personal needs had to be attended to in public by his partner, the second applicant. His care assistant, who had been driving him in his car when he was stopped by the police at about 11 a.m. was arrested and taken into detention, but brought out under guard on two occasions during the day in order to move him to another car and eventually at 9.30 p.m. to help him attend a hearing at which his house arrest was ordered. He was kept under house arrest until 21 June 2011, with the police frequently – sometimes up to four or five times a day – checking whether he was at home or not. Mr Shalyavski has apparently since been indicted – in 2016 – and is currently standing trial.
THE DECISION OF THE COURT
Relying in particular on Article 3 (prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment) of the European Convention on Human Rights, Mr Shalyavski alleged that his treatment on 7 April 2011 had caused him physical pain and public humiliation. Under Article 13 (right to an effective remedy) of the European Convention the applicants alleged in particular that they had had no effective remedies in domestic law for their complaints under Article 3.
Violation of Article 3 (degrading treatment) – in respect of Ventsislav Shalyavski, concerning the events of 7 April 2011 are anabolic steroids legal
