Case: Valiulienė v. Lithuania
Judgement date: 26 March 2013
Topic: Domestic violence
Aspect: Effectiveness of investigations into complaints of domestic violence

Summary of the facts:
This case concerned the complaint by a woman who was a victim of domestic violence about the authorities’ failure to investigate her allegations of ill-treatment and to bring her partner to account.

Summary of the Court's findings:
The Court held that there had been a violation of Article 3 (prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment) of the Convention, finding that the practices at issue in the instant case and the manner in which the criminal-law mechanisms had been implemented had not provided the applicant adequate protection against acts of domestic violence. In particular, there had been delays in the criminal investigation and the public prosecutor had decided to discontinue the investigation.

The facts:
I. THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE CASE
6. The applicant was born in 1976 and lives in Panevėžys.
7. The applicant stated that between 3 January and 4 February 2001, she had been beaten up on five occasions by her live-in partner, J.H.L., a Belgian citizen. She submitted that she had been strangled, pulled by the hair, hit in the face and kicked in the back and in other parts of her body.
8. The applicant’s injuries were documented by forensic expert examinations, the results of which were as follows:
(i) report of 5 January 2001 concerning injuries sustained on 3 and 4 January: hypodermic bruising on the left hip and thigh;
(ii) report of 8 January concerning injuries sustained on 7 January: a scrape on the right cheek and brachium;
(iii) report of 30 January concerning injuries sustained on 29 January: bruising on the right eye and cheek, the left temple, the shin, and a scrape on the left shin;
(iv) report of 7 February concerning injuries sustained on 4 February: hypodermic bruising on the face.
Each time the experts concluded that the bodily injuries sustained were minor and had not caused any short-term health problems ( lengvi kūno sužalojimai, nesukėlę trumpalaikio sveikatos sutrikimo ).
A. Pre-trial investigation into the alleged injuries
9. On 14 February 2001 the applicant lodged an application with the Panevėžys City District Court to bring a private prosecution. She stated that J.H.L. had beaten her up on five occasions and gave the following detailed statement:
“I have lived with J.H.L. since 1996. Recently he started to harass and beat me.
On 3 January 2001 at around 8 p.m., I came home and found J.H.L. drunk; he was pulling up floor tiles. I complained about how he was behaving and he started to pull at my clothes. I crouched down and he then kicked me in the ribs and in the buttocks and tried to strangle me and pull my hair. When he had calmed down, I went into another room.
The next morning, on 4 January 2001 at around 9 a.m., J.H.L. stated that if I did not want to live with him any more and did not behave as he wished, he would move everything out of the apartment and would then make me pay for what I had done. He got angry when I suggested that we talk things through and he started kicking and hitting me again. He hit me a few times in various parts of my body. After that, he left home and I went to my friend G.V.’s apartment. She saw that I had been beaten up and I told her everything that had happened.
On 7 January 2001 at around 5.30 p.m., I came home and found J.H.L. drunk again. He started to reproach me for seeking medical expert attention for my injuries and told me that he wanted me to leave. He then called the police. Later, after the police officers had left the apartment without having taken any action (they asked me to come in to the police station the following day), J.H.L. got mad and pushed me out of the apartment into the stairwell and hit me in the face. Hearing a noise, B. and J., neighbours from apartments nos. 51 and 52, came out of their apartments to the landing and saw what was happening.
On 29 January 2001 at around 6.30 p.m., I came back from school and J.H.L. got mad about our relationship falling apart (I wasn’t staying at the apartment as I was trying to avoid any confrontation) and he started to beat me again: he kicked me in the face, waist, and other parts of my body and hit me in the head. When he finally stopped beating me, I went to my friend J.V.’s apartment. She lives in the same building, at apartment no. 34.
On 4 February 2001 at around 8 p.m., while I was at home, a drunken J.H.L. got mad because I had told him not to waste electricity (I pay for the electricity as the apartment is in my name, as is the contract with the electricity supplier) and hit me in the face. After that, he blocked the door to stop me from leaving. Because I was so afraid of being beaten up even more I had to flee the apartment by climbing through the window. This must have been seen (or at least heard) by an unknown girl who had been visiting J.H.L. After fleeing the apartment I ran to my neighbour R.’s apartment at no. 48, from where I called the police. My neighbour from apartment no. 47 saw that I had been beaten up. I do not know her last name.
I sought medical attention from forensic experts about the injuries, which were classed as being minor bodily injuries.”
10. In her application to the court, the applicant alleged that the repeated acts of violence against her had constituted the offence of causing minor bodily harm under Article 116 § 3 of the Criminal Code in force at the material time (“the old Criminal Code”). She requested that the court open a criminal case against J.H.L. and that he be charged and punished under the above-mentioned provision of the Code. The applicant provided a list containing the names and addresses of five neighbours she wanted to call to the court as witnesses. She also requested the court to provide her with evidence from the Panevėžys city police about the violence she had sustained. Lastly, the applicant provided medical reports about her injuries.
11. In May 2001 the Panevėžys city police informed the applicant that “in reply to your complaint of 9 March 2001 we inform you that in the matter of your personal disagreements with J.H.L., we suggest that you apply to the Panevėžys City District Court for proceedings to be brought by way of a private prosecution”.
12. When questioned about her conflicts with J.H.L. on 8 May 2001, the applicant told a criminal investigator that she had lived with J.H.L. for three years in Belgium from 1996 to 1999. In 2000 she had returned to Lithuania and J.H.L. would visit her there. In 2000 she had sold him a half share of her apartment at 22-46 Statybininkų Street in Panevėžys. In early 2001, when she no longer wished to maintain her relationship with J.H.L., he had started insulting her and threatened to “rearrange her face” and injure her. The threats had continued on a regular basis. The applicant admitted to the court that she had not reported those threats to the police, but that this had been because the police officers would have told her to bring civil proceedings against J.H.L. She also made it clear that she had taken the threats seriously.
13. On 21 January 2002 a judge of the Panevėžys City District Court forwarded the applicant’s complaint to the Panevėžys city public prosecutor, ordering him to start his own pre-trial criminal investigation so that the examination of the case would not be delayed. To explain the request for a public prosecution to be carried out, the judge noted that J.H.L. had failed to appear in court on a number of occasions.
14. In the applicant’s reply to the Government’s observations on the admissibility and merits of the case, she provided the Court with a copy of an e-mail dated 12 June 2001 (in Dutch) sent by a certain Y.L., who appears to be the son of J.H.L., to what appears to be the applicant’s address. The e-mail reads as follows:
“(...) I will come for you and then we will see what will happen. One thing I can tell you [is that] you can forget your life and your [boy]friend’s life, I can promise you that. Order yourself a wheelchair already. My friends and I will grab you and you will see what real bandits are like, that you have never seen in Lithuania. Father did everything for you and now look at you. Do you think we can just leave it at that? You are a rotten street whore”.
15. On 1 February 2002 the pre-trial investigator decided to place J.H.L. under investigation on suspicion of the offence of systematically causing minor bodily harm to the applicant (Article 116 § 3 of the old Criminal Code).
16. According to a report of 11 December 2002 produced by D.D., a police investigator, police officers had been called to the applicant and J.H.L’s apartment twice, namely on 7 January and 4 February 2001. The applicant had told the police that J.H.L. had been verbally abusive to her and had tried to throw her out of the apartment. J.H.L. had been cautioned by the police on both occasions. The investigator noted that on those two occasions the applicant had not mentioned anything about her injuries to the police. The applicant had written to the police on 15 January 2001 that J.H.L. had cursed her and had not let her into the apartment, but she had not mentioned physical injuries.
17. In 2002 J.H.L. was charged with having deliberately and systematically injured the applicant, resulting in her having sustained minor bodily harm. The investigation was suspended and reopened numerous times because J.H.L. had failed to appear at court and had absconded. Each time the investigation was suspended, the applicant lodged an appeal.
18. In December 2002 the police investigator D.D. deemed that there was insufficient evidence to prove that J.H.L. was responsible for having beaten the applicant. On the basis of the applicant’s appeal, the prosecutor quashed that decision on the ground that the pre-trial investigation had not been thorough enough.
19. On 21 January 2003 the police investigator D.D. again decided to discontinue the pre-trial investigation, considering that there was no conclusive evidence that J.H.L. had perpetrated the crimes against the applicant and that that all the means to discover the truth had already been exhausted. The investigator noted that in the one-month period during which the violence had allegedly taken place, the police had only been called to the apartment twice to sort out “family quarrels”, and that in her statements to the police the applicant had not made any complaints of having been physically attacked by J.H.L. She had only complained that she had been shouted at by him and that he had refused to let her enter the apartment which they both shared as co-owners. The investigator did not rule out the possibility that the applicant had initiated the criminal investigation because there had been unresolved financial disputes between them.
The investigator’s decision was upheld by a public prosecutor on 10 February 2003.
The applicant appealed against those two decisions and on 9 February 2004 a higher prosecutor reopened the proceedings on the grounds that “the criminal investigation had not been [sufficiently] thorough”.
20. By a decision of 17 March 2004, the Panevėžys prosecutor’s office granted the applicant’s request to remove ( nušalinti ) the criminal investigator D.D. from the case because of concerns as to her impartiality. The prosecutor also noted that the criminal investigation had been delayed ( tyrimas buvo vilkinamas ).
21. On 10 June 2005 the prosecutor held that during the pre-trial investigation “it had been established” that the applicant had been strangled, hit and kicked on five separate occasions between January and February 2001 in the apartment situated at 22-46 Statybininkų Street in Panevėžys. As a result, she had sustained minor bodily harm. The prosecutor went on to say that “J.H.L. was suspected of having perpetrated the criminal acts in question”. Nevertheless, he decided to discontinue the pre-trial investigation on the grounds that the law had changed in 2003 and a prosecution in respect of minor bodily harm should have been brought by the victim in a private capacity. The prosecutor also considered there was no reason for a public prosecution, as the case did not fall within the ambit of Article 409 of the new Code of Criminal Procedure (see paragraph 36 below), that is to say, the prosecutor did not consider the crime to be of “public importance”. It was therefore up to the applicant to proceed accordingly and to apply to a court to bring a private prosecution against J.H.L.
22. The applicant appealed, arguing that she had already addressed the law-enforcement authorities about her injuries four years previously and had initiated a private prosecution at that time. However, the judge had transferred her complaint to a public prosecutor, who had initiated the pre­trial investigation. The investigation had continued after 1 May 2003, when the new Code of Criminal Procedure had entered into force. Those circumstances had led her to believe that the charges in the case were being pursued by the public prosecutor. Given that the public prosecutor had waited for two years before informing the applicant that he would not be prosecuting J.H.L., his position was difficult to understand. As far as the applicant was concerned, such a decision was in breach of the principle that criminal offences should be investigated promptly and that the perpetrator should receive a fair punishment. If the prosecutor deemed that private prosecution was the procedure which the applicant’s case should follow, then he should have informed the applicant immediately after the reform of the legislation on 1 May 2003. As a result the criminal proceedings had clearly been delayed, to the applicant’s detriment, since the guilty party had remained unpunished up until that day and the applicant had been unable to bring him to justice. Lastly, she submitted that the end of the limitation period for prosecuting J.H.L. was approaching (see paragraph 34 below).
23. By a decision of 19 July 2005, the deputy chief prosecutor at the Panevėžys City District Prosecutor’s Office dismissed the applicant’s appeal.
24. The applicant lodged a further appeal with the Panevėžys City District Court, again reiterating that the statutory time-limit for charging J.H.L. was approaching. If she were forced to start criminal proceedings all over again, the judgment would be delayed.
25. On 15 September 2005 the Panevėžys City District Court upheld the prosecutor’s decision, dismissing the applicant’s appeal. The court noted that, under Article 409 of the new Code of Criminal Procedure, a prosecutor had a right, but not an obligation, to initiate a pre-trial investigation. There was no information in the case file to indicate that the case was of public interest or that the victim could not protect her own rights by means of a private prosecution. The ruling was final and not amenable to appeal.
B. The private prosecution proceedings
26. On 28 September 2005 the applicant lodged a complaint with the Panevėžys City District Court, describing the five episodes of violence that had taken place between 3 January and 4 February 2001, and requesting that J.H.L. be privately prosecuted for causing minor bodily harm. She did not mention any other instances of ill-treatment, either physical or psychological.
27. On the basis of forensic reports and the applicant’s testimony at the hearing, the Panevėžys City District Court considered that J.H.L.’s acts corresponded to the offence of causing minor bodily harm under Article 140 § 1 of the new Criminal Code. The court considered that the limitation period for the prosecution of those offences was one-year. Accordingly, by a ruling of 15 December 2005 the court refused the applicant’s request on the ground that the prosecution had become time­barred.
28. The applicant appealed, arguing that her attacker would remain unpunished, which would breach her rights under the Convention, although she did not specify any particular provision thereof.
29. On 4 January 2006 the Panevėžys Regional Court reinterpreted the criminal procedure rules relating to the statutory limitation periods for prosecuting specific offences, found the limitation period to be five years, and therefore upheld the applicant’s appeal.
30. On 21 February 2006 the District Court again refused to open a pre­trial investigation on the basis of a private prosecution because the last date on which the applicant had been injured by J.H.L. was 4 February 2001, which meant that the five-year statutory limitation period for prosecution had been exceeded.
31. The applicant appealed, emphasising that although she had lodged a criminal complaint with the courts for J.H.L.’s prosecution immediately after she had been beaten up, the criminal proceedings had been pending for years on account of mistakes and inaction on the part of the prosecutors and courts. As a result, her attacker had not been prosecuted by the public prosecutor’s office of its own motion and her attempts to pursue her criminal complaint against him had been futile.
32. By a final ruling of 8 February 2007, the Panevėžys Regional Court dismissed the applicant’s appeal, finding that any kind of prosecution had become time-barred. The appellate court noted that the applicant had initiated private prosecution proceedings back in 2001. In 2002 the court had transferred the case to a public prosecutor to pursue an investigation into the charges being brought against J.H.L. of his own motion. As a result of the legislative changes in 2003, it had not been possible for the public prosecutor to carry on with the investigation. The Panevėžys Regional Court also observed that on 28 September 2005 the applicant had brought proceedings by means of a private prosecution regarding the same events. However, because of the five-year limitation period, the prosecution had no longer been possible.

Relevant law and the Court's assessment:
II. RELEVANT DOMESTIC LAW AND PRACTICE
33. Article 140 § 1 of the Criminal Code, in force from 1 May 2003 (“the new Criminal Code”), establishes criminal liability for causing minor bodily harm. The crime is punishable by community service or by a deprivation of liberty for up to one year.
Before 1 May 2003, the offence of intentionally causing minor bodily harm fell under Article 116 § 1 of the old Criminal Code. If the offence had been committed systematically, it was punishable by deprivation of liberty for up to three years (Article 116 § 3).
34. Article 95 § 1 of the Criminal Code in force at the material time provided that a prosecution could not be pursued if a minor ( nesunkus ) intentional crime had been committed more than five years earlier.
35. Following the legislative changes of 1 May 2003, Article 407 of the new Code of Criminal Procedure provides that criminal proceedings for offences such as causing minor bodily harm may only be opened upon a complaint by the victim. If the victim lodges such a complaint, he or she becomes the private prosecutor (Article 408 § 1).
36. Under Article 409 § 1 of the new Code, the public prosecutor has a right to open a criminal investigation into criminal offences normally investigated by means of private prosecution, such as the offence of causing minor bodily harm, if the crime is of public importance (that is, if it is in the public interest that the crime be solved) or if there are important reasons as to why the victim is unable to protect his or her rights.
37. On 26 May 2011 the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania adopted the Law on Protection Against Domestic Violence ( Apsaugos nuo smurto artimoje aplinkoje įstatymas ), which entered into force on 15 December 2011. The law states that its aim is to protect persons against domestic violence. The damage such violence causes to society means that it is in the public interest to respond promptly to threats of domestic violence, to undertake prevention measures, to apply protection measures and to provide appropriate assistance. The law also acknowledges that domestic violence is a violation of an individual’s human rights and freedoms (Article 1). As regards the measures to be taken by the police, the law provides that when notified of an incident of domestic violence, on arrival at the scene or on witnessing the incident, police officers are to make a domestic violence incident report and initiate a pre-trial investigation. It is not the responsibility of the victim to lodge a complaint (Article 7 § 1).
38. The Civil Code provides that where a person sustains bodily harm, that is, he or she is injured or his or her health is damaged in any other way, the person liable for the damage caused must compensate the aggrieved person for all the damage suffered, including any non-pecuniary damage (Article 6.283).
III. RELEVANT INTERNATIONAL LAW AND MATERIALS
39. In 1979 the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). Lithuania ratified the Convention on 18 January 1994. It ratified the Optional Protocol to the CEDAW on 5 August 2004. On 8 January 2008, the CEDAW Committee issued concluding observations on the State. The Committee noted the various efforts undertaken by Lithuania to combat violence against women, including domestic violence, including the adoption of the National Strategy for Combating Violence against Women, a number of amendments to the Criminal Code, the establishment of a network of crisis centres providing support to victims of violence and the extension of a specialized assistance by telephone for battered women countrywide to a continuous (24 hours a day) service in 2008. However, it remained concerned at the high prevalence of violence against women in Lithuania, in particular domestic violence, and at the absence of a specific law on domestic violence. The Committee was also concerned that this may lead to such violence being considered a private matter, in which case the consequences of the relationship between the victim and the perpetrator are not fully understood by police and health officers, the relevant authorities and society at large. The Committee thus urged Lithuania to ensure that comprehensive legal and other measures are in place to address all forms of violence against women, including domestic violence. It also recommended that Lithuania elaborate and introduce without delay a specific law on domestic violence against women that provides for redress and protection, and set a time frame for its adoption (paragraphs 74 and 75 of the Concluding Observations).
40. A nation-wide study of 1,010 women conducted in 1999 found that 42 percent of married or partnered Lithuanian women aged 18-74 have been physically assaulted or threatened with physical assault by their current partners in their lifetime (UN General Assembly, In-depth study on all forms of violence against women: report of the Secretary-General, 6 July 2006). Similarly, statistics from a 2000 survey by the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women indicated that in their lifetime 32.7% of women in Lithuania had experienced physical violence at the hands of their intimate partner.
41. On 5 May 2011 the Council of Europe adopted the Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence. To this day he Convention has been signed by twenty eight Council of Europe Member States and ratified by three. The Convention has not yet entered into force, nor has it been signed by Lithuania. One of the purposes of the Convention is to protect women against all forms of violence, and prevent, prosecute and eliminate violence against women and domestic violence.
THE LAW
I. ALLEGED VIOLATION OF ARTICLES 3 AND 8 OF THE CONVENTION
42. Relying on Articles 6 and 13 of the Convention, the applicant complained that the domestic authorities had failed to investigate the repeated acts of domestic violence against her and to hold the perpetrator accountable. She also complained that the criminal proceedings against him had been excessively lengthy.
43. The Court, which is master of the characterisation to be given in law to the facts of the case, finds that the above complaints fall to be examined solely under Articles 3 and 8 of the Convention, which read as follows:
Article 3
“No one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”
Article 8
“1. Everyone has the right to respect for his private ... life ...”
A. The parties’ submissions
1. The applicant
44. In her application to the Court, the applicant complained that the domestic authorities’ compliance with the relevant procedural rules, as well as the manner in which the criminal-law mechanisms were implemented in the instant case as regards her complaints of attacks on her physical integrity, were defective to the point of constituting a violation of her rights under Articles 6 and 13 of the Convention.
45. Once the application had been communicated to the Government, the applicant further elaborated on her claims, claiming a violation of Articles 3 and 8 of the Convention.
46. The applicant argued that her complaints fell to be examined under Article 3 of the Convention, submitting that the ill-treatment she had been subjected to attained the minimum level of severity required by the Court’s case-law ( Opuz v. Turkey, no. 33401/02, § 161, ECHR 2009). On this point, she maintained that the actual physical force which she had been subjected to on multiple occasions had not been moderate. She had been kicked in the face, buttocks and other parts of the body, grabbed by the throat, pulled by the hair, punched in the face and hit on the head. The applicant saw those physical injuries as serious enough not to be regarded as being “of a merely trivial in nature”, as suggested by the Government (see paragraph 55 below). Furthermore, the mere fact that the applicant had not suffered long­lasting or permanent injuries did not mean that the ill-treatment had failed to reach the level of severity to fall within the scope of Article 3, because in Tyrer v. the United Kingdom (25 April 1978, § 33, Series A no. 26) the Court had found a violation of Article 3, even though “the applicant did not suffer any severe or long lasting physical effects”.
47. Whilst noting the Government’s attempts to dispute the accuracy of the medical certificates provided as evidence of her injuries, the applicant maintained that her case was different from that of Bevacqua and S. v. Bulgaria (no. 71127/01, § 77, 12 June 2008), in which the Court had held that certificates issued six days after the incident had less evidential value. In the instant case, however, the applicant had been examined between one and three days after each incident.
48. As far as the applicant was concerned, contrary to the Government’s perception of events, the ill-treatment she was subjected to had not just consisted of attacks on her physical integrity. It also comprised mental suffering, humiliation, fear and anguish, constant terror, threats and verbal abuse. On this issue the applicant submitted that at one point she had also been threatened by J.H.L. that he would “dispose of” her if she refused to live with him or burn the apartment down with her in it. Moreover, the fact that ill-treatment amounting to torture, inhuman or degrading treatment did not extend only to acts causing physical pain or injury, but included acts that cause mental suffering, had also been recognised by the United Nations treaties and the case-law of the International Criminal Tribunals.
49. As concerns the duration of her ill-treatment, the applicant maintained that, contrary to what had been suggested by the Government (see paragraph 58 below), the five incidents of violence could not be perceived as “separate episodes”. She contended that the incidents, which had occurred within a one-month period from 3 January to 4 February 2001, had constituted a continuing situation. She also submitted that the ill­treatment by J.H.L. had not consisted of those five episodes alone and that his violent behaviour, both physical and psychological, had continued until the end of March 2001. On this point the applicant maintained that, after court proceedings had already commenced at the beginning of March 2001, she had been attacked again. She had reported the incident to the Panevėžys police on 9 March, and they had suggested that she should apply to the court regarding any “personal disagreements”. Moreover, on 12 June 2001 J.H.L. had sent the applicant an e-mail in which he had threatened to put her in a wheelchair. The applicant submitted that there had been further correspondence of a similar tone.
50. Turning to the legal remedies providing protection against domestic violence in Lithuania, the applicant was also critical of the Government’s argument that she “could have used civil-law mechanisms” against her perpetrator, a possibility which the applicant saw as only theoretical. The applicant believed that the latter argument by the Government was nothing less than an attempt to diminish the State’s responsibility for actual inaction in the sphere of domestic violence by suggesting alternative procedures that were only theoretically possible mechanisms for protecting victims’ rights. If the State authorities failed to maintain and apply in practice an adequate legal framework and criminal-law mechanisms affording protection against acts of violence, victims could not be held responsible for not looking to other means of punishing perpetrators and of ensuring just satisfaction. The responsibility to ensure accountability and safeguards against impunity lay with the State, not with the victim. Likewise, the fact that alternative procedures existed which could have been carried out against the perpetrator did not in any way eliminate the positive obligation on the State to investigate, prosecute and punish him in accordance with the Code of Criminal Procedure.
51. The applicant further considered that she, as a woman, had been a victim of gender-based violence, thus falling within the group of “vulnerable individuals” entitled to a higher degree of State protection. She submitted (without naming the source of such statistics) that in Lithuania, women were the victims most frequently subjected to domestic violence, that is to say in more than 95% of all domestic violence incidents. Moreover, around twenty women were killed every year as a result of domestic violence; in 2006, 63.3% of women admitted having been subjected to domestic violence by their partners or husbands at least once; and more than 40,000 telephone calls to the police were registered each year regarding complaints of domestic violence. The applicant thus maintained that Lithuania remained among the “leading” countries in Europe as far as the number of gender-based violence incidents was concerned. Accordingly, given the particular vulnerability of women affected by domestic violence, a heightened degree of vigilance was required by the State.
52. For the applicant, her case clearly illustrated how domestic violence was often tolerated by the State authorities, which allowed perpetrators to enjoy impunity. On this point she argued that despite her application to the Panevėžys City District Court in January 2001 for criminal proceedings to be initiated against J.H.L., the court had remained inactive for more than a year. In January 2002, that court had forwarded the applicant’s criminal complaint to the Panevėžys district prosecutor, ordering him to pursue the case by way of a public prosecution. In June 2005, the prosecutor had taken the decision to discontinue the investigation, based on legislative amendments enacted two years prior to his decision. Finally, the case had been dismissed as time-barred. The applicant thus considered that the way the proceedings had been handled was a clear illustration that the State had failed to fulfil its positive obligations under Article 3 of the Convention. She maintained that a large number of women today remained affected by the failure of the State authorities to take domestic violence seriously as a real threat to life and by their unwillingness to prosecute and punish the perpetrators of domestic violence appropriately.
53. In the alternative, the applicant argued that the manner in which the criminal-law mechanisms had been implemented in her case were defective to the point of constituting a violation of the State’s positive obligations under Article 8 of the Convention.
2. The Government
54. At the outset the Government maintained that the treatment to which the applicant had been subjected by J.H.L. had not attained the minimum level of severity to fall within the scope of Article 3 of the Convention. Accordingly, any positive obligations of the State with regard to the applicant’s complaints were to be dealt under Article 8 of the Convention. Their argument was as follows.
55. As regards the severity of the injuries sustained by the applicant and the effects of the treatment to which she had been subjected, the Government noted that, as established by the forensic experts, the applicant had sustained minor bodily harm that had not caused short-term health problems. Furthermore, in contrast to the facts in A. v. the United Kingdom (23 September 1998, § 21, Reports of Judgments and Decisions 1998-VI), the applicant had not been beaten with considerable force and the treatment inflicted had not resulted in a permanent injury. Accordingly, for the Government, “it could be said that the injuries sustained by the applicant had been of a merely trivial nature”.
56. The Government also appeared to have doubts about the evidential value of expert reports confirming the applicant’s injuries, implying that the applicant’s case was similar to that of Bevacqua and S. (cited above, § 77), in that the medical certificates in the instant case had been issued several days after the incidents. They also criticised the applicant’s statement that at the beginning of March 2001 she had been repeatedly attacked by J.H.L., observing that it was not clear whether she had indeed been subjected to violence on that occasion and, if so, to what extent. The same could be noted about the correspondence from J.H.L. she had submitted as evidence, which had not been mentioned in her complaints lodged with the domestic authorities.
57. The Government observed that, as had also been noted by the criminal investigator in her decision of 21 January 2003, within one month of the alleged violence occurring the police had been called only twice, but the applicant had made no allegations of being physically attacked by J.H.L., either in her statements to the police or to the officers who had attended her apartment on those two occasions. She had only complained that J.H.L. had refused to let her enter the apartment which they both shared as co-owners (see paragraph 16 above). However, on four occasions the applicant had taken it upon herself to ask the forensic experts to issue reports about the alleged injuries. In this connection, it had to be observed that, having analysed the evidence, the criminal investigator had had certain doubts concerning the nature of the disagreements between the applicant and J.H.L., and in her decision of 21 January 2003 the investigator had considered that the criminal investigation could have been initiated by the applicant because there existed unresolved financial disputes between her and J.H.L. For the Government, the latter decision by the investigator also revealed inconsistency in the statements given by J.H.L., the applicant and some of the witnesses regarding the alleged acts of violence, such discrepancies being an important aspect when deciding the issue of the applicability of Article 3 of the Convention.
58. As concerns the duration of the applicant’s ill-treatment, although she maintained that she had been injured on five occasions, she had not reported the first incident to the police. Nor had she mentioned any physical violence when the police were called to the apartment on 7 January or 4 February 2001. Furthermore, it was the Government’s view that after the institution of the court proceedings on 14 February 2001 the applicant had sustained no further injuries at the hands of J.H.L. In any case, the applicant’s complaints were related to five alleged incidents of ill-treatment that had occurred over approximately a month, quite a short period of time. Therefore, contrary to the facts in Beganović v. Croatia (no. 46423/06, § 67, 25 June 2009), and even assuming that the facts provided by the applicant to the Court were wholly indisputable, the alleged ill-treatment was not premeditated and it had not been applied in one continuous stretch, but rather had consisted of “separate episodes of alleged violence”.
59. The Government also considered that apart from the criminal-law mechanisms, other means or mechanisms responding to the allegedly inflicted ill-treatment could have been explored by the applicant. For instance, she could have used other protective measures available at the relevant time aimed at the provision of assistance to the victims of domestic violence, for example, approaching a women’s crisis centre or a family support centre. Moreover, the applicant also could have used civil-law mechanisms against the alleged perpetrator by bringing a claim for compensation, a remedy which, according to the Government, “might still be available”. The latter remedy was also relevant as regards the allegedly sustained mental suffering that the applicant had also complained about.
60. Noting that the context of “domestic violence” does not necessarily attract the State’s responsibility under Article 3 of the Convention, the Government maintained that the applicant could not be automatically considered a vulnerable person because of her age – as, for example, children would be – or her gender or social status, contrary to the Court’s judgment in Opuz (cited above). The situation of women in Lithuania could be described as being significantly different from that of women in Turkey, given that the applicant and J.H.L. had shared ownership of an apartment and, moreover, they had been business partners. The applicant thus had not been financially dependent on J.H.L.; she was an educated, independent woman who owned her own property. Eventually their relationship had become discordant and the applicant had entered into a close relationship with another man, her future husband, who had later moved in to live with her.
61. As concerns the State’s positive obligations under Articles 3 and 8 of the Convention, the Government acknowledged that the investigation of the applicant’s complaints had lasted too long and that this had resulted in the case being dismissed as time-barred. They also admitted that, notwithstanding that there were certain objective reasons why criminal proceedings had been pending, namely international elements and legislative reform, it was regrettable that the case had not been fully and efficiently investigated and the perpetrator of the alleged crime had not been convicted.
62. Lastly, the Government noted that in the meantime the Law on Protection against Domestic Violence had been enacted in Lithuania. Although they had doubts as to whether the circumstances of the instant case could be regarded as domestic violence, the Government admitted that it might take some time for the legislation to become really efficient in this regard. Nonetheless, it was very important that all acts of domestic violence thereafter were classified as crimes of public importance and investigated under the general public prosecution procedure instead of by private prosecution. Accordingly, the State had thus shown its intention to provide a proper response to the domestic violence cases and to ensure that victims were placed in a more favourable procedural position.
63. In the light of the foregoing considerations, the Government submitted that the applicant’s claims within the meaning of Article 3 of the Convention were manifestly ill-founded.
B. The Court’s assessment
1. Admissibility
(a) Applicability of Articles 3 and 8 of the Convention to the circumstances of the present case
64. The Court will first address the Government’s argument that the applicant’s complaints were not covered by Article 3 of the Convention because of the “trivial nature” of the injuries she had sustained.
65. The Court reiterates that ill-treatment must attain a minimum level of severity if it is to fall within the scope of Article 3. The assessment of this minimum is relative: it depends on all the circumstances of the case, such as the nature and context of the treatment, its duration, its physical and mental effects and, in some instances, the sex, age and state of health of the victim (see Đorđević v. Croatia, no. 41526/10, § 94, ECHR 2012).
66. Treatment has been held by the Court to be “inhuman” because, inter alia, it was premeditated, was applied for hours at a stretch and caused either actual bodily injury or intense physical and mental suffering (see Labita v. Italy [GC], no. 26772/95, § 120, ECHR 2000-IV). Treatment has been considered “degrading” when it was such as to arouse in its victims feelings of fear, anguish and inferiority, capable of humiliating and debasing them and possibly breaking their physical or moral resistance (see Hurtado v. Switzerland, 28 January 1994, § 67, Series A no. 280-A; and Wieser v. Austria, no. 2293/03, § 36, 22 February 2007).
67. Turning to the circumstances of the instant case, the Court first notes the physical violence suffered by the applicant. As confirmed by the forensic experts, as a result of the ill-treatment she had experienced, the applicant sustained hypodermic bruising on the left hip and thigh, a scrape on the right cheek and brachium, bruising on the right eye and cheek, the left temple and the shin, a scrape on the left shin and hypodermic bruising on her face. The Government suggested that at least some of those injuries had not been properly documented. However, the Court does not share this view. Firstly, and contrary to the facts in Bevacqua and S. (cited above, § 77), in the present case the forensic experts saw the applicant between one and three days after each incident (see paragraph 8 above). Secondly, those injuries had been considered to have been “established” by the prosecutor in his decision to close the criminal investigation on 10 June 2005 (see paragraph 21 above). The same conclusion appears to have been supported by the criminal court (see paragraph 27 above). Even though the Government argued that certain inconsistencies had been found in the investigator’s decision of 21 January 2003, the prosecutor subsequently quashed that decision as superficial and the investigation was reopened (see paragraphs 19 and 20 above). That being so, and without being able to rely on the final decision by the Lithuanian courts as to the merits of the applicant’s complaint about her ill-treatment, the Court cannot but conclude that she did sustain the injuries listed above.
68. The Court further observes that the five incidents of violence occurred within a time frame of one month, in the period between 3 January and 4 February 2001. Although in her submissions to the Court the applicant argued that the ill-treatment had continued after she had instituted criminal proceedings on 14 February 2001, referring in that connection to her complaint to the Panevėžys police on 9 March 2001, the Court cannot find the reply given by the police conclusive, as it does not know the contents of the applicant’s complaint (see paragraph 11 above). Neither can the Court rule on the credibility of the e-mail containing threats to the applicant (see paragraph 14 above), given that the contents of that e-mail were never drawn to the attention of the Lithuanian authorities. In this connection the Court nevertheless notes that in one of her last complaints of impunity, namely her application of 28 September 2005 to bring a private prosecution (see paragraph 26 above), the applicant mentioned the five incidents that took place between January and February 2001. That being so, the Court considers that the five instances of ill-treatment stretched over a period of time. Accordingly, it will examine those acts as a continuing situation, which it finds to be an aggravating circumstance.
69. Lastly, the Court cannot turn a blind eye to the psychological aspect of the alleged ill-treatment. It observes that the applicant made credible assertions that over a certain period of time she had been exposed to threats to her physical integrity and had actually been harassed or attacked on five occasions. The Court acknowledges that psychological impact is an important aspect of the domestic violence. Moreover, whilst in the circumstances of the present case it is unable to fully share the applicant’s view that she, as a woman, by default fell into the category of vulnerable persons (see, by contrast, Đorđević, cited above, § 91), the Court nonetheless notes that, as it had been acknowledged by the Government, following the enactment of the Law on Protection against Domestic Violence, crimes of such a nature fall into the category of those having public importance.
70. In the light of the foregoing, the Court considers that the ill-treatment of the applicant, which on five occasions caused her physical injuries, combined with her feelings of fear and helplessness, was sufficiently serious to reach the level of severity under of Article 3 of the Convention and thus raise the Government’s positive obligation under this provision (see Milanović v. Serbia, no. 44614/07, § 87, 14 December 2010).
(b) Exhaustion of domestic remedies
71. The Government implied that the applicant had a civil-law avenue as regards her complaints about perpetrators of domestic violence enjoying impunity. The Court notes, however, that the applicant made full use of the remedy provided by criminal procedure. It also considers that what is at the heart of this case is the question of impunity for the acts of domestic violence, which is a matter to be addressed by the criminal courts. On this point the Court also reiterates that, in the event of there being a number of domestic remedies which an individual can pursue, that person is entitled to choose a remedy that addresses his or her essential grievance. In other words, when a remedy has been pursued, use of another remedy that has essentially the same objective is not required (see Jasinskis v. Latvia, no. 45744/08, § 50, 21 December 2010 and the case-law cited therein).
(c) Conclusion
72. The Court also finds that the complaints under Article 3 of the Convention are not manifestly ill-founded within the meaning of Article 35 § 3 of the Convention. It further finds that they are not inadmissible on any other grounds. They must therefore be declared admissible.
Lastly, the Court considers that, since the applicant’s complaint under Article 8 of the Convention is based on the same facts, it must also be declared admissible.
2. Merits
73. Once the Court has found that the level of severity of violence inflicted by private individuals attracts protection under Article 3 of the Convention, its case-law is consistent and clear to the effect that this Article requires the implementation of adequate criminal-law mechanisms (see Beganović, cited above, § 69; M.C. v. Bulgaria, no. 39272/98, § 151, ECHR 2003-XII). However, the scope of the State’s positive obligations might differ between cases where treatment contrary to Article 3 of the Convention has been inflicted through the involvement of State agents and cases where violence is inflicted by private individuals. The Court observes in the first place that no direct responsibility can be borne by Lithuania under the Convention in respect of the acts of the private individuals in question.
74. The Court notes, however, that even in the absence of any direct responsibility for the acts of a private individual under Article 3 of the Convention, State responsibility may nevertheless be engaged through the obligation imposed by Article 1 of the Convention. In this connection the Court reiterates that the obligation on the High Contracting Parties under Article 1 of the Convention to secure to everyone within their jurisdiction the rights and freedoms defined in the Convention, taken together with Article 3, requires States to take measures designed to ensure that individuals within their jurisdiction are not subjected to torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, including such ill-treatment administered by private individuals (see A. v. the United Kingdom, cited above, § 22).
75. Furthermore, Article 3 requires States to put in place effective criminal-law provisions to deter the commission of offences against personal integrity, backed up by law-enforcement machinery for the prevention, suppression and punishment of breaches of such provisions, and this requirement also extends to ill-treatment administered by private individuals. On the other hand, it goes without saying that the obligation on the State under Article 1 of the Convention cannot be interpreted as requiring the State to guarantee through its legal system that inhuman or degrading treatment is never inflicted by one individual on another or that if it is, criminal proceedings should necessarily lead to a particular sanction. In order that a State may be held responsible it must, in the view of the Court, be shown that the domestic legal system, and in particular the criminal law applicable in the circumstances of the case, failed to provide practical and effective protection of the rights guaranteed by Article 3 (see Beganović, cited above, § 71).
76. It must be stated at this juncture that it is not the Court’s task to verify whether the prosecutors and the domestic courts correctly applied domestic criminal law; what is in issue in the present case is not individual criminal-law liability, but the State’s responsibility under the Convention. The Court must grant substantial deference to the national courts in the choice of appropriate measures, while also maintaining a certain power of review and the power to intervene in cases of manifest disproportion between the gravity of the act and the results obtained at domestic level (see, mutatis mutandis, Nikolova and Velichkova v. Bulgaria, no. 7888/03, § 62, 20 December 2007, and Atalay v. Turkey, no. 1249/03, § 40, 18 September 2008).
77. In this connection, the Court notes that the obligation on the State to bring to justice perpetrators of acts contrary to Article 3 of the Convention serves mainly to ensure that acts of ill-treatment do not remain ignored by the relevant authorities and to provide effective protection against acts of ill­treatment (see Beganović, cited above, § 79).
78. As regards the criminal-law mechanisms provided by the Lithuanian legal system in connection with the State’s obligations under Article 3 of the Convention, the Court notes at the outset that Article 116 of the old Criminal Code and Article 140 § 1 of the new Criminal Code define causing minor bodily harm as a specific criminal offence. The Court further observes that up to 1 May 2003 such crimes were amenable to investigation by the public prosecutor. After that date, criminal acts causing minor bodily harm are to be prosecuted only upon a complaint by the victim, who in turn becomes the private prosecutor. Even so, a public prosecutor retains the right to open a criminal investigation into acts causing minor bodily harm, if the crime is of public importance or the victim is not able to protect his or her interests (see paragraphs 33, 35 and 36 above). The Court is thus satisfied that at the time relevant to the instant case Lithuanian law provided a sufficient regulatory framework to pursue the crimes attributed by the applicant to J.H.L.
79. The Court will now examine whether or not the impugned regulations and practices, and in particular the domestic authorities’ compliance with the relevant procedural rules, as well as the manner in which the criminal-law mechanisms were implemented in the instant case, were defective to the point of constituting a violation of the respondent State’s positive obligations under Article 3 of the Convention.
80. Turning to the circumstances of the case the Court notes that as early as 14 February 2001 the applicant had addressed the Panevėžys City District Court to bring a private prosecution. On the basis of forensic reports produced soon after each incident of violence, she claimed that J.H.L. had ill-treated her on five separate occasions, describing each incident in detail. She gave the names and addresses of five witnesses whom she wanted to call in the case. She alleged that the acts of violence against her constituted a crime mentioned in Article 116 of the old Criminal Code, that is to say, acts which had caused her minor bodily harm. She provided the domestic court with relevant medical documentation in support of her allegations. The Court thus concludes that the Lithuanian authorities received sufficient information from the applicant to raise a suspicion that a crime had been committed. It thus finds that as of that moment those authorities were under an obligation to act upon the applicant’s criminal complaint.
81. Indeed, as appears from the Panevėžys City District Court ruling of 21 January 2002, that court took immediate steps to bring J.H.L. to justice. However, given that the latter had failed to appear in court on numerous occasions, the court decided to transfer the case to a public prosecutor. The Court thus considers that, up until that moment, the Lithuanian authorities had acted without undue delay.
82. Be that as it may, the Court nevertheless notes that, once the case had been transferred for public prosecution, the investigation was suspended two times for lack of evidence. Each time the applicant had shown great interest in her case and had made serious attempts to have J.H.L. prosecuted. Upon her persistent appeals, the prosecutors quashed the investigator’s decisions as not being thorough enough (see paragraphs 18 and 19 above). The Court thus finds that this was a serious flaw on the part of the State.
83. The Court further notes that even though the Lithuanian Code of Criminal Procedure had changed in May 2003, it was only in June 2005, that is to say two years after the legislative reform, that the prosecutor decided to return the case to the applicant for private prosecution, thus taking her back to square one, to the same situation she had been in four years previously, when she had first approached the Panevėžys City District Court in February 2001. In this connection the Court observes that the prosecutor’s decision was upheld by a higher prosecutor and then by a court, despite the applicant’s pleas that this would risk J.H.L. enjoying impunity given that the statutory time-limit to prosecute him was approaching. The Court also finds it noteworthy that, as it appears from the reading of Article 409 § 1 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, even after the reform of 1 May 2003 the investigation of acts causing minor bodily harm may still be pursued by a public prosecutor, provided that it is in the public interest. In this context it notes the Government’s submission that the new Law on Protection against Domestic Violence serves to acknowledge such crimes as having public importance, to be prosecuted by means of general criminal procedure instead of private prosecution.
84. Indeed, once the criminal proceedings instituted by the public prosecutor had been terminated, the events transpired exactly as the applicant had predicted. Even though the applicant without any delay addressed the same Panevėžys City District Court with an application for private prosecution, that court dismissed her application on the very ground she feared, namely that the prosecution had become time-barred. Finally, the decision to terminate the criminal proceedings due to the statutory limitation was upheld by the Panevėžys Regional Court, thus leaving the applicant in a state of legal limbo. Accordingly, all the attempts by the applicant to have her attacker prosecuted were futile.
85. Turning to the question of the State’s responsibility under Article 3 of the Convention, the Court firstly reiterates that, within the limits of the Convention, the choice of the means to secure compliance with Article 3 in the sphere of the relations of individuals between themselves is in principle a matter that falls within the domestic authorities’ margin of appreciation, provided that criminal-law mechanisms are available to the victim (see Beganović, cited above, § 85). Thus, and inasmuch as it concerns the circumstances of the instant case, it is not for the Court to speculate whether the applicant’s criminal complaint should have been pursued by the public prosecutor, or by a way of private prosecution, although the Government’s argument suggests the former (see paragraph 62 above). Be that as it may, the fact remains that the circumstances of the case were never established by a competent court of law. In this connection the Court notes that one of the purposes of imposing criminal sanctions is to restrain and deter the offender from causing further harm. However, these aims can hardly be achieved without having the facts of the case established by a competent criminal court. The Court thus cannot accept that the purpose of effective protection against acts of ill-treatment is achieved where the criminal proceedings are discontinued owing to the fact that the prosecution has become time-barred and where this has occurred, as is shown above, as a result of the flaws in the actions of the relevant State authorities (see Beganović, cited above, § 85).
86. In the Court’s view, the practices at issue in the present case, together with the manner in which the criminal-law mechanisms were implemented, did not provide adequate protection to the applicant against acts of violence. Therefore the Court finds that there has been a violation of Article 3 of the Convention.
87. Having regard to the above, the Court finds that it is not necessary to examine the complaint separately under Article 8 of the Convention.
II. APPLICATION OF ARTICLE 41 OF THE CONVENTION
88. Article 41 of the Convention provides:
“If the Court finds that there has been a violation of the Convention or the Protocols thereto, and if the internal law of the High Contracting Party concerned allows only partial reparation to be made, the Court shall, if necessary, afford just satisfaction to the injured party.”
A. Damage
89. The applicant claimed 20,000 euros (EUR) in respect of non-pecuniary damage.
90. The Government contested that claim as unreasonable.
91. The Court considers that the applicant’s suffering and frustration cannot be compensated for by a mere finding of a violation. Nevertheless, the particular amount claimed appears excessive. Making its assessment on an equitable basis, it awards the applicant EUR 5,000 in respect of non­pecuniary damage.
B. Costs and expenses
92. The applicant also claimed EUR 4,000 for the costs and expenses incurred before the Court. She broke that sum down into EUR 3,000 (30 hours of work with the fee of EUR 100 per hour) for the preparation of her response to the Government’s observations and her arguments that there had been a violation of the Convention, and EUR 1,000 (10 hours of work at a rate of EUR 100 per hour) for the preparation of her claims for just satisfaction.
93. The Government observed that the applicant had not provided evidence to show that she had actually incurred the amount claimed. They also noted that the applicant had failed to provide a copy of the legal services agreement to show that she was contractually obliged to pay the required sum. The costs claimed could not therefore be considered actual.
94. According to the Court’s case-law, an applicant is entitled to the reimbursement of costs and expenses only in so far as it has been shown that these have been actually and necessarily incurred and are reasonable as to quantum. In the present case, as there are no documents in the Court’s possession except for the authority form signed by Mr H. Mickevičius and having regard to the above criteria, the Court rejects the applicant’s claim for costs and expenses in the proceedings before the Court.
C. Default interest
95. The Court considers it appropriate that the default interest rate should be based on the marginal lending rate of the European Central Bank, to which should be added three percentage points.