Published on 9 October 2023

FIFTH SECTION

Application no. 8394/20 Ruslan Telekhovych YERYOMENKO against Ukraine lodged on 28 January 2020 communicated on 18 September 2023

SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE

The application concerns the alleged systematic ill-treatment of the applicant by staff members of Oleksiyivska Prison no. 25 during his imprisonment there from 4 May 2010 to 2 December 2015, as well as the alleged ineffectiveness of the domestic investigation into the matter.

The investigation was launched on 7 October 2013, after human rights’ activists had raised the allegation of prisoners’ ill-treatment in Oleksiyivska Prison at a press-conference. As soon as the applicant was released in December 2015, he additionally raised that complaint before the prosecution authorities. In April 2016 he was questioned in his capacity of an aggrieved party. The forensic medical expert examination of the applicant, which was carried out on 9 January 2017, established numerous old scars on his body, possibly originating from burns and hits with blunt objects. The expert concluded that the applicant had sustained those injuries a year and a half prior to the examination or earlier, that is when he had been serving his sentence in Oleksiyivska Prison.

The prosecution authorities discontinued the investigation several times for the lack of evidence of a criminal offence. Those decisions were subsequently quashed as premature and unfounded. The investigation is apparently still pending.

QUESTIONS TO THE PARTIES

1. Has the applicant been subjected to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, in breach of Article 3 of the Convention?

2. Having regard to the procedural protection from inhuman or degrading 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 provide copies of all the documents regarding the investigation into the applicant’s allegations of ill-treatment, which are not yet in the case file.