4.  The applicant was born in 1942 and lives in Glodeni.
5.  At the time of the events giving rise to the present application he was a pensioner who received an amount equivalent to some fifty-eight euros (EUR) per month. On 5 May 2014 the Minister of Social Protection organised a meeting with the inhabitants of the applicant’s town. The applicant was also present and after the meeting he asked the Minister a question about the method of calculation of his pension. He contended that the coefficient employed for the calculation had been wrong and that his pension was too small. The Minister replied that his pension was high enough and questioned in an ironic manner whether the applicant even understood the meaning of the words used in his question. The answer infuriated the applicant and he cursed and slapped the Minister in the face.
6.  On the same day, following the Minister’s complaint, criminal proceedings were initiated against the applicant on charges of hooliganism.
7.  On 12 May 2014 the prosecutor in charge of the case ordered the applicant’s psychiatric examination in order to determine whether he was fit to plead in the criminal proceedings.
8.  On 29 May 2014 a commission of psychiatrists speculated that the applicant might suffer from either dementia or amnesia. However, they did not reach a final conclusion and recommended the conduct of an in-patient psychiatric examination.
9.  On 2 July 2014, at the prosecutor’s request, the Glodeni District Court ordered an in-patient psychiatric forensic examination of the applicant. The applicant challenged the above decision but without success. His appeal and appeal on points of law were rejected by the Bălți Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court of Justice on 28 August and 15 October 2014, respectively.
10.  On 18 September 2014 the applicant was arrested by a group of five police officers and taken to the Chișinău Psychiatric Hospital. Upon arrival, the applicant was asked to sign several pre-printed documents, the meaning of which was that he was giving his formal consent to hospitalisation and treatment. He signed them, but wrote on one of them that he did not consent to being subjected to a psychiatric examination (nu sunt de acord cu expertiza).
11.  On 20 September 2014 the applicant was visited by his son in hospital. After the visit the son employed a lawyer who started to take measures in order to have the applicant released.
12.  On 24 September 2014, at the lawyer’s advice, the applicant wrote to the hospital administration a letter stating that he had been hospitalised against his will on 18 September 2014 and that if he had signed anything, he wished to withdraw his signature.
13.  On 25 September 2014 the applicant was released from hospital. It appears from a video submitted by the applicant’s representative, that the door of the hospital ward where the applicant was detained was locked and that one could enter or exit only with the approval of the medical staff.
14.  On 30 September 2014 the prosecutor in charge of the case applied to the Glodeni District Court to have the applicant remanded in custody pending trial for a period of thirty days.
15.  On 4 November 2014 the Glodeni District Court rejected the prosecutor’s request and found that the applicant had been subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment as a result of his forceful hospitalisation.
16.  By a final judgment of the Supreme Court of Justice of 26 December 2017 the applicant was found guilty as charged and sentenced to a criminal fine of 4,000 Moldovan lei (MDL), the equivalent of some EUR 180.