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MINISTERS’ DEPUTIES |
Decisions |
CM/Del/Dec(2021)1419/H46-33 |
2 December 2021 |
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1419th meeting, 30 November – 2 December 2021 (DH)
H46-33 Mikheyev group v. Russian Federation (Application No. 77617/01) Supervision of the execution of the European Court’s judgments
Reference document |
Decisions
1. recalled that this group of cases concerns torture or inhuman and degrading treatment and death in police custody, including ill-treatment motivated by the victim’s ethnic origin, and the lack of effective investigations in this respect; arbitrary and unacknowledged detention in police custody; use in criminal proceedings of confessions obtained under duress and the lack of an effective remedy to claim compensation for the ill-treatment inflicted;
2. deeply regretted the absence of any updated information from the authorities since 2019 and expressed serious concern about the remaining large number of cases pending since 2006 and over 200 new applications pending before the European Court, indicating the lack of progress in the execution of these judgments concerning a systemic and structural problem in the respondent State;
As regards individual measures
3. strongly urged the authorities to provide information about the individual measures adopted or envisaged in all of the cases in this group (see H/EXEC(2021)18); urged the authorities in particular to ensure without further delay that criminal investigations are opened or resumed in those cases where the earlier investigation was found by the Court to be ineffective, provided that the crime alleged has not became time-barred, and that they fully address the findings in the European Court’s judgments, notably those in which the Court established that ill-treatment took place, or to provide alternative adequate redress where investigations are no longer possible;
As regards general measures
Preventing and combatting ill-treatment in police custody
4. reiterated their call for a strong, zero-tolerance message at a high political level concerning
ill-treatment by the police;
5. invited the authorities to provide information about the measures adopted or envisaged to further improve the existing safeguards against ill-treatment and their practical implementation, notably:
- legislative and regulatory framework governing the use of force by the police;
- apprehended persons’ right to a telephone call to inform about their apprehension and whereabouts;
- apprehended persons are duly informed of their rights;
- access to a lawyer is granted before initial questioning by police officers;
- medical examination of all persons apprehended;
- measures to address police ill-treatment motivated by the apprehended person’s ethnic origin;
- statistical information about the number of convictions of persons complaining about police ill-treatment of “false accusations”;
Effectiveness of investigations into allegations of ill-treatment in police custody
6. invited the authorities to provide information about the following issues:
- the possibility to criminalise torture as a separate crime removing statutory time-limits for its prosecution and setting appropriate sanctions, in line with other member States’ and the Committee’s practice;
- the way in which police ill-treatment complaints may be registered, in particular whether a complaint into alleged police ill-treatment may be registered as “citizen petition” rather than a criminal complaint at the discretion of a duty officer;
- the possibility for prison officers to restrict discussions concerning ill-treatment between detainees and members of the Public Monitoring Commissions (PMCs) (independent civil body monitoring ill-treatment of detainees), which may significantly reduce the monitoring role and effectiveness of PMCs;
- measures taken in order to avoid rejection of complaints at the stage of pre-investigation inquiry;
- the division of competencies between the different bodies charged with investigation of police ill-treatment;
- in this regard, a clear description of the roles played by other bodies involved, including police internal security departments and investigators who are not members of the aforementioned special units is required;
- the alleged negative impact on investigators’ performance appraisal of the lack of judicial convictions in criminal cases they open, and the reported lack of staff in the Investigative Committee dealing with police
ill-treatment;
- reconsideration of the practice of suspended sentences handed down to police officers found guilty of ill-treatment, which deprives criminal law of its deterrent effect (cf. Voroshilov, § 26);
- manner in which national judges are provided with translations, summaries or extracts of European Court judgments and the legal status of such translations which would allow them to be used in domestic proceedings without requiring any further certified translation from the parties;
- updated statistical data concerning investigations into complaints of police ill-treatment, including the number of such complaints received by the various investigative bodies, the number of full-fledged criminal investigations initiated, the number of convictions handed down and details of sentences imposed on wrongdoers.
Use by prosecutors and criminal courts of confessions obtained under duress
7. urged the authorities to ensure that all evidence obtained under torture is prima facie inadmissible and cannot be used by prosecutors and criminal courts for the purposes of construction of criminal charges or convictions;
Conclusion
8. expressed grave concern about the significant increase of cases concerning police ill-treatment and ineffective investigations in the respondent State, as well as the communications submitted by NGO’s and applicants demonstrating the absence of major progress in the execution of these judgments, the leading one pending before the Committee for 15 years; urged the authorities to take urgently measures to improve the situation and to prevent recurrence of similar serious human rights violations;
9. invited the authorities, in this context, to draw inspiration from the practices of other member States, including, as regards safeguards to prevent substantive violations of Article 3, installing video cameras in police stations, recording interrogations, while, as regards measures to enhance effectiveness of investigations, these may include the establishment of an independent investigative body dealing with police ill-treatment complaints, abandoning the pre-investigation inquiry stage and opening of criminal case into complaints immediately and early examination of possible ex officio reopening of criminal investigations;
10. invited, in this connection, the authorities to engage promptly in bilateral dialogue with the Secretariat and to participate actively in the co-operation activities offered by the Council of Europe, and encouraged them to agree to the publication of the latest reports of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) on the five visits to Russia carried out between 2013 and 2021, covering ill-treatment in police custody;
11. decided to resume their examination of this group of cases at one of their DH meetings in 2022.