FIRST SECTION

Application no. 24488/13 M.B. against Croatia lodged on 22 March 2013

STATEMENT OF FACTS

The applicant, Mr M. B. , is a Croatian national, who was born in 1974 and lives in Sesvete . The President granted the applicant ’ s request for his identity not to be disclosed to the public (Rule 47 § 3).

The circumstances of the case

The facts of the case, as submitted by the applicant, may be summarised as follows.

The applicant, who works as a police inspector, was arrested on 15 January 2007 in connection with a suspicion of family violence.

According to the applicant, during his arrest he was ill-treated in the police station by several police officers; including a certain A.H. Concerning that event, he underwent a medical examination which showed that he had sustained several spinal and abdominal contusions and had blood in his urine.

In the period between February 2007 and October 2008 the applicant submitted several criminal complaints concerning the event to the police and the competent State Attorney ’ s Office.

On 25 May 2008 there was another incident in which the applicant sustained injuries.

According to the applicant, two police officers, one of whom was the above-mentioned A.H., approached him in front of his house and A.H. immediately started discussing the criminal complaints which the applicant had lodged against him. At one point A.H. pulled the applicant and the applicant fell to the ground hitting his head. Available medical records show that the applicant sustained injuries to his forehead and both arms and his version of the events was confirmed by three alleged eyewitnesses .

According to the police version of the events, established in the course of the disciplinary proceedings against the applicant, the police intervened in front of the applicant ’ s house on the basis of an anonymous report that an intoxicated person was lying in front of a residential building. When the police patrol, consisting of A.H. and another police officer, arrived at the scene they realised that it was the applicant. The applicant was under the influence of alcohol and he was therefore taken to the psychiatric hospital for detoxification. On his way there the applicant became violent and he had to be restrained.

On 23 September 2010 the Minor Offences Court, in the proceedings concerning the same events, acquitted the applicant finding that there was no evidence that he had been violent.

COMPLAINTS

The applicant complain ed , under Article 3 of the Convention, about his ill-treatment during the arrest and police custody and about the lack of an effective investigation in that respect.

QUESTIONS TO THE PARTIES

1. Has t he applicant been subjected to ill-treatment during his arrest , in breach of Article 3 of the Convention?

2. Having regard to the procedural protection from ill-treatment (see paragraph 131 of Labita v. Italy [GC], no. 26772/95, ECHR 2000-IV), was the investigation in the present case by the domestic authorities in breach of Article 3 of the Convention?

The Government are requested to submit two copies of the relevant documents concerning the applicant ’ s arres t, his medical treatment and any investigation taken in that respect.