5.  The applicant was born in 1966 and lived in Nizhniy Novgorod. He is currently serving a prison sentence in the Nizhniy Novgorod region.
6.  On 24 April 2004 a robbery took place at the offices of a company in Nizhniy Novgorod. On the same day the Nizhegorodskiy district police department of Nizhniy Novgorod opened a criminal case into the robbery. The Operational-Search Division of the Chief Directorate of the Ministry of the Interior of the Russian Federation in the Privolzhskiy Federal Circuit (Оперативно-розыскное бюро ГУ МВД РФ по Приволжскому федеральному округу – “the ORB police unit”, “the police” or “police officers”) carried out operational-search activities in the case, including phone tapping. The results were declassified and transferred to S., an investigator from the investigation division of the Nizhniy Novgorod regional police department (Следственная часть Главного следственного управления при ГУВД Нижегородской области) in charge of the robbery case, on 2 June 2004. According to the police report, the robbery was committed by the applicant and five other individuals. On 4 June 2004 S. requested a court order to search the applicant’s flat, on the grounds that he was suspected of committing the robbery.
7.  On 7 June 2004 Judge D. of the Nizhegorodskoy District Court of Nizhniy Novgorod granted the investigator’s request and ordered that the applicant’s flat be searched, referring to the applicant as a suspect.
8.  From 6.18 to 7.56 a.m. on 8 June 2004 police officers searched the applicant’s flat in his presence. They then took him to the offices of the ORB police unit in Nizhniy Novgorod (“the police station”).
9.  The applicant’s account of the subsequent events is as follows. His request for access to a lawyer was ignored. The police demanded that he confess to the robbery. He refused. Three of the officers who had arrested him were joined by other police officers, including K., Pr. and S. They subjected him to various forms of violence, such as punching and kicking him, blocking his airway by covering his mouth and nose with a rag, and tying him up in a painful position. They made him sit on the floor cross‑legged, with his hands cuffed behind his back and a bag put over his head so that he could not see anything. His feet were tied with a rope, which was connected to his neck and the handcuffs. The police officers pulled the rope to contort the applicant into a painful position, then sat on his back and jumped on him. When the applicant lost consciousness they poured water on him. He heard the officers tell each other not to leave any marks on his body. The investigator entered the room several times and demanded that the applicant write a confession.
10.  According to the applicant, his ill-treatment lasted for several hours until he wrote a confession statement as requested.
11.  According to the police records, the applicant confessed to committing the robbery with three other individuals at 9.30 a.m. on 8 June 2004. His confession was recorded in the form of a voluntary “statement of surrender and confession” (явка с повинной) by operational officer P. in room no. 329. The record stated that at 9.30 a.m. on 8 June 2004 the applicant had turned himself in to the police and reported that he had committed the crime.
12.  According to a record of the applicant’s arrest as a suspect in the robbery case, drawn up by S., the applicant was arrested at 9.40 a.m. on 8 June 2004, and the record was drawn up at the same time. Between 5.05 and 5.30 p.m. he was questioned as a suspect in the presence of a lawyer appointed by S. The applicant refused to give statements, relying on his constitutional right not to incriminate himself. He was then placed in the temporary detention centre of the Nizhniy Novgorod regional police department.
13.  On 9 June 2004 the applicant was brought before Judge D. of the Nizhegorodskoy District Court, who granted the investigator’s request for the applicant to be remanded in custody. According to the applicant, at the hearing in the presence of a lawyer appointed by his family, he complained to the judge that he had been ill-treated by police officers and had signed a confession statement as a result, but the judge did not take any action.
14.  According to the applicant, after the court hearing he was not placed in a remand centre as was normal practice. He was instead detained in the temporary detention centre of the Privolzhskiy Federal Circuit police department for five days, before being placed in a remand centre, SIZO‑1. According to the Government, the applicant was held in SIZO-1 from 9 June 2004.
15.  On 15 June 2004 the applicant was charged with robbery and questioned as an accused by S. in the presence of his lawyer. The applicant pleaded his innocence and again refused to give statements.
16.  On 22 June 2004 the applicant was taken from SIZO-1 to the police station. According to him, police officers, in particular Ch., K., P. and Pr., again subjected him to ill-treatment to force him to give confession statements.
17.  On 24 June 2004 the applicant, through his lawyer, lodged complaints with the head of the remand centre, the Nizhniy Novgorod regional prosecutor, the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Presidential Human Rights Committee. He described suffering acts of violence at the hands of the police officers on 8 and 22 June 2004 (see paragraphs 9 and 16 above). He requested that action be taken and that he be placed under protection, adding that he could identify the police officers concerned. He stated that as a result of the violence he had confessed to a crime which he had never committed in a “statement of surrender and confession” which had been dictated to him by the police officers and S.
18.  The applicant’s account of events on 28 June 2004 is as follows. On 28 June 2004 the applicant was taken from SIZO-1 to the police station, where he was again subjected to ill-treatment and asked to give confession statements. Police officers, in particular Ch., K., P. and Pr., punched and kicked him and tied him up in painful positions. Both his legs were tied with a rope and pulled apart. As on the previous occasion on 22 June 2004, no investigative activities were carried out with the applicant.
19.  On 29 June 2004 the applicant asked a doctor at the remand centre to record the injuries allegedly inflicted on him the previous day, notably contusions to his chest which made it difficult for him to breathe and abrasions. At 11.20 a.m. the doctor, Ch., recorded circular abrasions on the lower third of both shins with a brown “wet” surface 1.5 to 2 centimetres wide. The doctor concluded that the injuries had been inflicted the previous day. The injuries were reported to the head of SIZO-1.
20.  On the same day the applicant, who had received no response to his previous complaint, lodged another complaint with the head of the remand centre stating that he had been beaten up at the police station on 28 June 2004, as a result of which he had sustained contusions to his ribcage and abrasions. He asked for an investigation into the incident and to be given a full medical examination. He stated that despite the severe pain in his chest the medical staff of the remand centre had refused to give him a proper medical examination. He asked the head of the remand centre to stop taking him to the police and to instead conduct any investigative activities at the remand centre in his lawyer’s presence.
21.  On 30 June 2004 the applicant sent a second complaint to the Nizhniy Novgorod regional prosecutor, complaining that on 28 June 2004, in a room at the police station with the sign “nos. 326-331” on the door, police officers had beaten him up for several hours to force him to confess to crimes which he had not committed. Upon his return to the remand centre he had asked the medical staff to record his injuries. The applicant asked for the police officers to be prosecuted and stated that he could identify them.
22.  On 13 July 2004 a police officer, M., reported to the head of division no. 3 of the ORB police unit, which provided “operational support” in the applicant’s criminal case, that three of the five people detained in the case had confessed to the robbery and had been cooperating with the investigation by uncovering further evidence of criminal activity by the group. According to operational information, the applicant had attempted to intimidate the co‑accused held in the same remand centre who had started cooperating with the investigating authority, thereby making them fear for their lives and health and hampering the investigation. The report recommended that the applicant be transferred to correctional colony IK‑14.
23.  On 14 July 2004 S. ordered that the applicant be transferred to a unit functioning as a remand centre at IK-14 for the same reasons as those stated in the police report (see paragraph 22 above).
24.  It appears that the applicant was transferred there on 21 July 2004.
25.  The applicant’s account of the subsequent events is as follows. He was placed in a punishment cell for eighteen days. During this time he was beaten unconscious, to make him confess to a series of armed robberies, by several convicted prisoners acting on the police’s instructions and with the connivance of the administration of IK-14. They punched and kicked him, hit him with a rubber truncheon and hung him upside down. Subsequently, for some time he was detained together with convicted prisoners. He was repeatedly visited by the police, in particular officers Ch. and P., who demanded that he confess to a series of robberies and beat him up when he refused. They also asked some of the convicts, in particular S.P. and A.V., to beat him up. After the beatings he could hardly move on his own. One convict, Z., threatened him with sexual violence if he did not sign confession statements. The staff of the medical unit at IK-14 allegedly refused him medical treatment.
26.  According to the applicant’s medical records from IK-14, from 21 to 29 September 2004 he received inpatient treatment for a neurological disorder.
27.  On an unspecified date during his detention in IK-14 the applicant confessed to six crimes and his confessions were recorded as “statements of surrender and confession”.
28.  On 3 November 2004 at IK-14 the applicant reiterated his confession statements in the presence of S. and his lawyer. The statements were documented in a record of his questioning as an accused. According to the applicant, the confessions were the result of torture by the police and convicts, which he could not stand any longer.
29.  On 1 December 2004 S. ordered the applicant’s transfer back to the remand centre on the grounds that the risk of him intimidating his co‑accused no longer existed since all necessary investigative measures had been carried out. On 2 December 2004 the applicant was transferred to SIZO-1.
30.  According to the Government, during his detention in IK-14 the applicant was held in a unit functioning as a remand centre. He was allowed short-term visits from his wife on 13 August and 24 September 2004. According to a letter of 29 July 2010 signed by the Sukhobezvodnenskiy prosecutor, the applicant was detained in a unit at IK‑14 functioning as a remand centre from 6 August to 2 December 2004.
31.  The applicant submitted several envelopes with postage stamps in which he had sent letters to his family in November 2004. His handwritten address was indicated as unit no. 14 at IK-14.
32.  The applicant submitted to the Court the following witness statements recorded by a representative of the non-governmental organisation Committee Against Torture in Nizhniy Novgorod in February 2006:
(i)  According to a statement by I.K., he was serving a sentence of imprisonment in unit no. 14 at IK-14, where he was informally given the task of monitoring discipline. In September 2004 the applicant, who was not a convicted prisoner like the others, was transferred to the unit. I.K. learned from B., who was high in the unofficial hierarchy of convicted prisoners in the unit, that the applicant had been transferred there so that he could be coerced into giving confession statements at the request of law‑enforcement officers by whatever means. The applicant had bruises under his eyes and haematomas on his head. He could hardly move on his own and was depressed. He was visited several times by officers from the ORB police unit. After the visits he had to seek others’ help to get to his cell and looked very oppressed. On one occasion, after a visit, the applicant wrote a statement in which he described being tortured and beaten up during his interviews. I.K. handed the statement over to B. Later that day two convicts, A.V. and S.P., went to see the applicant and took him to a storage room. Through the thin plywood walls I.K. could clearly hear A.V. and S.P. yelling at the applicant and threatening him with physical and sexual violence if he kept complaining and refusing to write the statements which the police had asked him to give. On several other occasions I.K. heard one convict, Z., threaten the applicant with sexual violence if he refused to give statements. After the applicant had been coerced into giving several confession statements in a row he was no longer threatened and beaten up and soon left the colony. I.K. stated that he was ready to confirm his statements before the investigating authority and the courts, adding that he feared pressure from the police and the prosecutor’s office.
(ii)  According to a statement by G., he was serving a sentence of imprisonment in IK-14. In September 2004 the applicant, who was not a convicted prisoner like the others, was transferred to his unit. He had bruises under his eyes and complained of pain on both sides of his body and in his spine. On repeated occasions he was called for interviews by officers from the ORB police unit. The interviews began in the morning and lasted until evening. After the interviews the applicant was unable to move on his own and had fresh injuries, notably abrasions and bruises on his face. He explained that he had been beaten up by police officers. On one occasion three convicts, V., B. and Z., took him to a storage room. G. heard them yelling at the applicant and threatening him, demanding that he confess to some crimes and write confession statements as requested by the police officers. After that incident the applicant had several fresh bruises on his face.
(iii)  According to statements by the applicant’s wife, at the court hearing on 9 June 2004 the applicant looked very depressed. He had bruises on his head and abrasions on his wrists. When she visited him in IK-14 his face was bruised, he was dragging his leg behind him and had difficulty sitting down. He said that he was being detained with convicted prisoners in unit no. 14 and visited regularly by police officers demanding that he give confession statements in relation to serious crimes. During subsequent visits, on at least three occasions, the applicant looked like he had been beaten up, with abrasions and bruises on his face and head and bruises on his wrists. He had difficulty speaking, made long pauses and could hardly move. On one occasion, he said that he had signed several confession statements in a row as a result of torture. At one of the court hearings for the extension of his detention he complained of severe back pain.
(iv)  According to the applicant’s son, D.M., at the same hearing on 9 June 2004 the applicant looked very depressed and shocked. His face was swollen, his lips were smashed and he was walking with difficulty. He did not recognise his family. When visiting his father in IK-14 D.M. learned of the violence he had suffered at the hands of the police officers and convicts.
33.  The Government submitted extracts from the applicant’s medical records relating to the period of his detention, in particular:
(i)  A form entitled “examination by a doctor on duty” with the following pre-printed sections: “height”, “weight”, “complaints”, “pharynx and cutaneous coverings”, “heart and lungs”, “arterial pressure”, “tuberculosis”, “venereal diseases”, “mental diseases”, “viral hepatitis”. The word “headache” is written in the “complaints” section, while “clean” appears in the “pharynx and cutaneous coverings” section. The form does not give details as to which parts of the applicant’s body were examined and where the examination took place. It is signed and dated 9 June 2004.
(ii)  A form entitled “bodily injuries upon arrival” states that there were “no bodily injuries” on 9 April 2007 at IK-20. The form is signed and dated 9 June 2004 and contains a similar signature to the form described above.
34.  The investigating authorities carried out pre-investigation inquiries into the applicant’s allegations of violence by the police and convicts acting on their instructions with the connivance of the administration of IK‑14. No criminal proceedings were opened into his allegations. Details of the decisions taken by the investigating authorities are as follows.
35.  On 16 July 2004 an investigator from the Nizhegorodskoy district prosecutor’s office of Nizhniy Novgorod refused to initiate criminal proceedings into the applicant’s alleged ill-treatment on 8 and 22 June 2004, pursuant to Article 24 § 1 (1) of the Code of Criminal Procedure for lack of evidence that a crime had been committed. Relying on statements by S. and the police officers, who all denied the applicant’s allegations, the investigator held that the applicant’s allegations were not supported by evidence.
36.  On 23 August 2004 the Nizhegorodskoy district prosecutor found that decision lawful, well-reasoned and based on a comprehensive and impartial inquiry.
37.  On 6 March 2006 the Nizhegorodskoy deputy district prosecutor revoked the decision of 16 July 2004 as unlawful and ill-founded for failure to identify all the police officers concerned.
38.  On 2 August 2004 an investigator from the Nizhegorodskoy district prosecutor’s office refused to initiate criminal proceedings into the applicant’s alleged ill-treatment on 28 June 2004, pursuant to Article 24 § 1 (2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure for lack of the constituent elements of a crime under Article 286 of the Criminal Code (abuse of powers) in the actions of Ya., one of the police officers who had taken the applicant on 28 June 2004 from SIZO-1 to the police station and back. The investigator relied on statements by Ya. and S. denying any ill‑treatment of the applicant. The investigator held that there was no evidence that the abrasions on the applicant’s shins, as described in the medical record of 29 June 2004, had been caused at the police station.
39.  On 6 March 2006 the Nizhegorodskoy district deputy prosecutor revoked that decision as unfounded for failure to identify all the police officers concerned.
40.  On 13 March 2006 an investigator from the district prosecutor’s office issued a new decision refusing to open criminal proceedings against officer Ya., identical to the previous decision. On 31 March 2006 the Nizhegorodskoy district deputy prosecutor annulled that decision as unfounded.
41.  In the course of a new pre-investigation inquiry the applicant gave “explanations”, describing in detail his alleged ill-treatment by police officers Ch., K., P. and Pr., and stating that he could identify several others. Pr. stated that after the applicant’s arrest and before the arrival of the investigator in charge of the criminal case the police officers had interviewed the applicant.
42.  Relying on the police officers’ statements denying any ill-treatment of the applicant, two more decisions refusing to open a criminal case against the police officers were issued on 10 April 2006 (annulled the same day) and 19 April 2006.
43.  On 8 April 2005 a deputy prosecutor from the Sukhobezvodnenskaya prosecutor’s office, which supervised law observance in penal facilities, refused to institute criminal proceedings into the applicant’s allegations of ill-treatment in IK-14, pursuant to Article 24 § 1 (1) of Code of Criminal Procedure for lack of evidence that a crime had been committed.
44.  The decision stated that, according to the applicant, while in IK-14 he had been held in a punishment cell in a unit functioning as a remand centre and in unit no. 14 together with convicted prisoners, who had subjected him to psychological and physical violence to force him to give “statements of surrender and confession”. His allegations had included regular beatings by convicts A.A., B., M.K., S.P. and A.V., a member of the administration of IK-14, Captain V., and police officers, in particular P. and his subordinates.
45.  Relying on statements by police officers M., P. and Ya., the investigator S., convicts A.A., M.K., and A.V., and T., the head of the unit functioning as a remand centre, who all denied the applicant’s allegations of ill‑treatment, the deputy prosecutor held that the applicant’s allegations were not supported by evidence.
46.  On the same day the head of the Nizhniy Novgorod regional prosecutor’s office division responsible for supervising investigations and inquiries reviewed the decision of the Sukhobezvodnenskaya prosecutor’s office of 8 April 2005 and found it lawful and well-reasoned, stating that during his detention in IK-14 the applicant had confessed to six crimes, and “his statements had been documented in records of surrender and confession (явки с повинной) which had been forwarded to the [Operational-Search Division of the Chief Directorate of the Ministry of the Interior of the Russian Federation] in the Privolzhskiy Federal Circuit (ОРБ ГУ МВД России по Приволжскому федеральному округу)”.
47.  The applicant lodged appeals against the decision of 8 April 2005, which were dismissed by various levels of prosecutor’s office, as stated in a letter from an assistant Prosecutor General of the Russian Federation of 20 February 2006, and letters from the Nizhniy Novgorod regional prosecutor’s office dated 9 March and 10 April 2006.
48.  The applicant was tried by jury before the Nizhniy Novgorod Regional Court. At a preliminary hearing on 19 October 2005 he requested that the records of his questioning as an accused and some other records of investigative activities conducted in his case be excluded as evidence because the self‑incriminating statements recorded therein had been obtained from him under duress by police officers and convicts of IK-14.
49.  At the applicant’s request the trial court heard two witnesses. The applicant’s son S.I. stated that at his custody hearing, the applicant had been in a “delirious state”, had had a swollen face, had been limping a lot and had been helped by others to move around. When S.I. had visited his father in IK-14 at the end of August 2004 he had had a bruise near one of the eyes, a cut lip, bluish hands and bruises and abrasions on his wrists. The applicant had written to his family in September or October 2004, asking them to lodge an official complaint regarding the beatings. However, he had then changed his mind and asked them not to do so.
50.  I.K. stated that he had served a sentence of imprisonment in IK-14. The day after his arrival the applicant had been admitted to the medical unit with complaints of pain in his back and leg. He had had bruises on his face which, according to him, had been inflicted on him by other convicts. The applicant had been taken out of the unit for visits regularly, about three times a month. I.K. had learnt from the applicant that the visitors had been the police. After the visits the applicant had been unable to walk up the stairs and had complained of pain in his head and back.
51.  The trial court found that the witness statements did not support the applicant’s allegations. It noted that the disputed records had been signed by a lawyer and contained information about the applicant’s procedural rights. In the court’s opinion, the applicant’s medical history, notably post‑traumatic encephalopathy, osteochondrosis of the cervical spine and a form of dystonia, which he had been diagnosed with in 1991, explained his complaints of headaches and pain in his back and legs. The court also relied on statements by S., who denied the applicant’s allegations, and on the Sukhobezvodnenskiy prosecutor’s decision refusing to institute criminal proceedings into the applicant’s alleged ill-treatment. It held that the applicant’s allegations that his confession statements had been given under duress were not based on fact and rejected his requests to have the impugned evidence declared inadmissible.
52.  On 8 June 2006 the applicant and his co-accused were convicted of theft and a series of armed robberies committed in 1998, 1999, 2002 and on 24 April 2004 by a criminal group led by two of the applicant’s co‑accused. The applicant was sentenced to nineteen years’ imprisonment. In sentencing the applicant the court applied Article 61 § 1 (i) of the Criminal Code, which provided that a “statement of surrender and confession”, active cooperation in investigating a crime and exposure of other participants in a crime were extenuating circumstances which warranted a less severe punishment.
53.  The applicant appealed. He stated that after his arrest he had been beaten up by police officers and had given a “statement of surrender and confession” under duress, which he had revoked at trial. His injuries had been confirmed by medical evidence. On 21 July 2004 he had been unlawfully transferred to correctional facility IK-14 under the pretext that he had intimidated his co-accused, which he had never done. He had been held in a punishment cell and then in a unit together with convicted prisoners who had subjected him to beatings as a result of which he had given self‑incriminating statements. This had been confirmed by witness I.K.
54.  On 22 February 2007 the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation reduced the applicant’s sentence to sixteen years’ imprisonment, correcting calculation errors by the trial court, and upheld the remainder of the judgment. Relying on the Sukhobezvodnenskiy prosecutor’s decision refusing to institute criminal proceedings, it upheld the trial court’s findings in relation to the applicant’s allegations of police violence and his request for the evidence allegedly obtained under duress to be excluded.
55.  On 25 November 2013 the Varnavinskiy District Court of the Nizhniy Novgorod region reduced the applicant’s sentence to fifteen and a half years’ imprisonment following amendments to the Criminal Code.