Published on 23 May 2022

SECOND SECTION

Application no. 24565/19 Victor PRIDOROJNÃŽI against the Republic of Moldova lodged on 2 May 2019 communicated on 3 May 2022

SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE

The application concerns the applicant’s alleged ill-treatment while in detention and the failure to carry out an effective investigation into his allegation of ill-treatment.

The applicant and two other persons were arrested and pressured to confess to a crime which he had not committed. The applicant was threatened with persecution of his family members and was beaten up by the police. A medical certificate from a hospital issued on the day of his arrest confirmed injuries on his face, as well as an ecchymosis on his left arm and excoriations on both wrists. According to a report by a surgeon who examined the applicant on the same day, the applicant had been brought to the hospital by the police; he explained that he had been caused the injuries as a result of ill-treatment by the police. The prosecution (the same subdivision which was responsible for the case against the applicant) refused five times to open a criminal investigation into the complaints of ill-treatment made by the three accused, each time an investigating judge annulling the decisions as taken after an insufficient investigation.

The applicant complains of a breach of Article 3 under its substantive and procedural limbs as a result of his ill-treatment by the police and the failure to carry out an effective investigation.

QUESTION TO THE PARTIES

Has there been a violation of Article 3 of the Convention? In particular, was the applicant ill-treated while in detention? Did the authorities carry out an effective investigation into his allegation of ill-treatment? ( Bouyid v. Belgium [GC], no. 23380/09, §§ 81-134, ECHR 2015; and Trocin v. the Republic of Moldova , no. 23847/19, §§ 40-63, 16 March 2021)