MINISTERS’ DEPUTIES

Decisions

CM/Del/Dec(2023)1483/H46-11

7 December 2023

1483^rd meeting, 5-7 December 2023 (DH)

H46-11 Velikova group v. Bulgaria (Application No. 41488/98)

Supervision of the execution of the European Court’s judgments

Reference document

CM/Notes/1483/H46-11

Decisions

The Deputies

1. recalled that these cases concern deaths, ill-treatment or lack of timely medical assistance during arrest, in police detention or in penitentiary facilities and the lack of an effective investigation thereon;

As regards individual measures

2. invited the authorities to provide their assessment as to whether the police officers responsible for the torture in the Myumyun case and for the negligent killing in the Dimitrov and Others case, who are still employed by the police, are suitable to work with detainees or should be transferred to other functions;

3. urged the authorities to provide without any further delay information on possible steps for conducting a criminal investigation into the act of torture in the Stoykov case; also invited them to rapidly provide their assessment of the possibility to carry out new investigations in the Palfreeman and Ignatov cases, to provide information on the individual measures envisaged or adopted in the case of Ribcheva and Others and on the outcome of the reopened judicial proceedings in the Yanchovichin case;

As regards general measures

4. welcomed the important legislative reforms, adopted in 2023, introducing the right to appeal before a court against a refusal to open criminal investigation and a provision criminalising torture, while also noting that their application remains to be assessed; recalled also the previously adopted important legislative and other measures and decided, in view of the substantial progress achieved so far, to close the examination of the Velikova case, to adopt Final Resolution CM/ResDH(2023)482 and to continue the examination of all outstanding questions under the Dimitrov and Others case;

5. invited the authorities again to consider the need to criminalise the extortion of a confession from a suspect not yet served with charges at the pre-trial, and to pursue their analysis on the possible introduction of systematic video recording of the interrogations of suspects;

6. noted with interest the amendments to the relevant instructions on detention by the police in 2023, setting out in more detail certain rights, and invited the authorities to provide information on the impact of these amendments; urged the authorities to present concrete measures for detainees to ensure timely access to a legal assistance and notification of a third person, as well as prompt, confidential and accurate medical examinations and their recording in police and penitentiary facilities;

7. as concerns medical examinations and assistance, encouraged the authorities to: 1) provide an assessment as to whether further measures are needed to ensure that detainees are examined by suitably trained doctors, who have both formal and de facto independence; 2) clarify whether it is necessary to provide for an obligation in primary legislation for doctors in penitentiary facilities to notify directly a prosecutor of injuries found; 3) provide information on practical measures to ensure timely medical assistance in detention;

8. urged again the authorities to : ensure that preliminary inquiries and investigations are supervised by prosecutors who do not have (regular) working relations with the suspected police officers, and that preliminary inquiries are carried out by persons, who enjoy sufficient institutional and hierarchical independence and do not have (regular) working relations with the suspected police or penitentiary officers; and to introduce automatic notification to the Prosecutor’s Office of complaints of ill-treatment received by the police;

9. invited again the authorities to indicate how they have ensured, or intend to ensure, in line with the established case-law of the European Court and together with appropriate safeguards, that law enforcement agents who have been convicted of crimes involving ill-treatment are dismissed, and police officers or penitentiary staff charged with ill-treatment could be suspended on grounds related to such charges, even though there is no risk of them hindering the investigation;

10. invited the authorities to provide additional concrete information on the outcome of investigations against police officers concerning incidents during the 2020 rallies; invited them also to provide concrete information on the rules on classification of information and practices applicable to internal inquires, to allow an assessment whether now victims may, in justified situations, gain sufficient and timely knowledge of their outcome;

11. invited again the authorities to put in place a national system for compiling statistics on complaints, prosecutions and disciplinary and criminal penalties related to ill-treatment, as recommended by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and to provide thorough and comparable statistics and to support through concrete steps a more intensive monitoring by the Ombudsperson and expert NGOs;

12. invited the authorities to engage in consultations with the Secretariat with a view of rapidly identifying concrete further measures and to provide information on all the above questions, and on aspects identified in the analysis of the Secretariat and in H/Exec(2023)14, by 30 June 2024.