5.  The applicant was born in 1964 and is detained in Gorodyshche in the Rivne region.
6.  In the late hours of 11 July 2010 the applicant broke a window in the home of Mr and Mrs Ma. (“the victims”) and threw a jar of petrol with a burning fuse into the room where Mrs Ma. was sleeping. As a result, she was seriously burned.
7.  On 19 July 2010 the applicant was arrested.
8.  According to the applicant, following his arrest, from 19 to 22 July 2010 police officers ill-treated him in order to force him to confess to attempted murder of the victims. In particular, he alleged that the police officers hit him, put a plastic bag over his head cutting off his air supply, and subjected him to electric shocks. He also alleged that during that period he had been kept without food and water, tightly handcuffed and had not been allowed to use the toilet.
9.  On 21 July 2010 the applicant gave a statement to the police confessing that he had thrown a firebomb into the window of the victims’ house because he believed that a person with whom he had had a conflict, Mr Ma., lived there.
10.  On 22 July 2010 an arrest report was drawn up documenting the applicant’s arrest on suspicion of attempted murder. O., a legal aid lawyer, was appointed for the applicant. The applicant signed a document that explained his rights as a suspect, including the right to remain silent and to consult a lawyer before his first questioning.
11.  Later on the same day the applicant was questioned as a suspect in the presence of lawyer O. He repeated his confession in essentially the same terms. The investigator asked him how he had chosen the window into which to throw his firebomb. He responded that he had chosen the window which had been lit up by light from a computer, indicating that people were living there. At the close of the interview the lawyer asked the applicant whether he was making his statements of his own free will and the applicant responded in the affirmative.
12.  On 24 July 2010 the applicant refused the services of lawyer O. and asked that S. be admitted as his lawyer instead. The investigator admitted S. as the applicant’s lawyer on the same day.
13.  On 26 July 2010 the applicant’s lawyer asked that the applicant be directed to a forensic medical expert to determine whether he had any injuries and, if so, how they had been inflicted.
14.  A report drawn up by a forensic medical expert dated 29 July 2010 stated that, other than bruises on the wrists, which could be explained by handcuffing, the applicant had a hematoma on his back, and red spots on the back of his thighs. The applicant explained the injuries by saying that he had been ill-treated at the police station after his arrest on 19 July 2010: officers had hit him on the torso and back, twisted his arms, put a plastic bag over his head cutting off his air supply, and, using an electroshock device, subjected him to electric shocks on the back and legs. The expert believed that the spots were the result of the healing of bruises which could have been inflicted either by blunt objects or by electric shocks and that all the documented injuries could have been inflicted at the time indicated by the applicant.
15.  On 29 July 2010 the applicant was charged with attempted murder and the investigator attempted to question him. He refused to give evidence.
16.  On 3 September 2010 the applicant stated, in an interview, that he had intended to set fire to what he thought to be an empty summer cottage, without endangering anyone’s life.
17.  On 19 October 2010 the investigator attempted to question the applicant in the presence of his lawyer concerning the origin of his injuries revealed by the forensic medical investigation. He refused to give evidence and stated that he would testify on that point in the course of the trial.
18.  Also on 19 October 2010 the investigator, having noted the results of the forensic medical examination, stated that if the applicant’s statements to the expert were confirmed, they would indicate that official misconduct had been committed. Accordingly, he forwarded the results of the examination to the Slovyansk prosecutor, requesting that he conduct an investigation. The prosecutor questioned several police officers, who denied any ill‑treatment. Two officers stated that the applicant had been arrested on 19 July 2010 but had refused to follow the arresting officers to the police station, so he had been handcuffed. He had then been released and had come back to the station voluntarily when summoned on 22 July 2010.
19.  On 3 November 2010 an investigator of the prosecutor’s office refused to institute criminal proceedings against the police officers in connection with the applicant’s allegations of ill-treatment for lack of a corpus delicti in their actions. He referred to the officers’ statements and the applicant’s refusal to give evidence on that point, and stated that the applicant had been handcuffed lawfully and there was no proof that his injuries had been inflicted by the police.
20.  In the course of the pre-trial investigation against the applicant witness Mi. was questioned. He testified that on the night of the crime he had taken the applicant to the vicinity of the victims’ house in his car. The applicant had had in his bag a jar of petrol, which he had equipped with a fuse in Mi.’s presence. He had then gone in the direction of the victims’ house and had quickly returned.
21.  On 21 October 2010, on completion of the investigation, the applicant and his lawyer studied the file and stated that they had no statements or requests to make.
22.  The bill of indictment submitted to the trial court stated, in particular, that although the applicant had pleaded not guilty to the charges, his guilt was corroborated by the evidence, including his own statement made at the early stages of the investigation.
23.  At his trial, the applicant testified that he had intended to set on fire what he thought to be an empty summer cottage, without endangering the victims’ lives. Witness Mi. testified that on the night of the crime he had taken the applicant to the victims’ house in his car and that the applicant had had a bag with him. However, contrary to his statement made during the pre-trial investigation, Mi. testified at trial that he had not seen the bag’s contents. He stated that the applicant had gone in the direction of the victims’ house and had quickly returned. When asked about the contradiction in his statements made during the pre-trial investigation and during the trial, Mi. said that he had been subjected to “psychological and physical influence” by the police during the pre-trial investigation.
24.  On 23 February 2012 the Slovyansk Court convicted the applicant of attempted murder, intentional infliction of grievous bodily harm and arson which had had grievous consequences. It sentenced him to fifteen years’ imprisonment. In convicting the applicant the court relied, in particular, on the applicant’s statements made during the pre-trial investigation, which the trial court interpreted to mean that the applicant had realised that the house he had set on fire had been the victims’ home and that they might have been inside at the time, in particular the applicant’s statement to the effect that he had seen lights on in the house. The trial court also relied on Mi.’s statements made during the pre-trial investigation, finding them more credible than his testimony during the trial, in particular because they had been repeated in the course of confrontations with the applicant. His allegations of pressure had been verified by the prosecutor’s office but no proof had been found to corroborate them.
25.  The applicant appealed, arguing, primarily, that he had not intended to murder the victims and had set their house on fire only after attempting to verify that there had been nobody inside. He insisted that he had been ill‑treated in order to extract his confession.
26.  On 29 May 2012 the Donetsk Regional Court of Appeal (“the Court of Appeal”) requested the Slovyansk prosecutor to investigate the applicant’s ill-treatment allegations.
27.  On 5 June 2012 the Slovyansk prosecutor quashed the investigator’s decision of 3 November 2010 and conducted a new round of pre‑investigation enquiries. In the course of the enquiries the prosecutor’s office took statements from the applicant, the police officers, lawyer O. and the medical expert who had issued the report of 29 July 2010, and examined the premises of the police station where the alleged ill-treatment had taken place and its entry records.
28.  Police officers stated that the applicant had been arrested and handcuffed on 19 July 2012 but had then been released and invited back for a new interview on either 21 or 22 July 2010. Officer F. stated that he could not explain the discrepancy between the date of the applicant’s initial confession, 21 July 2010, and the date of his official arrest, 22 July 2010, insisting that the applicant had been handed over to the investigator, who had put him under arrest immediately following his confession.
29.  The record of the interview with the medical expert is one page long. Two questions were put to the expert. First, he was asked on what grounds he had concluded that the applicant’s injuries could have been caused by electric shocks. The expert responded that his conclusion had been based on the applicant’s statements and the results of the examination. Secondly, he was asked whether the injuries noted in the report could have been inflicted by different blunt objects and under different circumstances. The expert responded that they could.
30.  Lawyer O. stated that the applicant had not complained to him of any ill-treatment.
31.  On 15 July 2012 the prosecutor refused to institute criminal proceedings against the police officers for lack of a corpus delicti in their actions. By way of reasoning, the prosecutor stated, in particular, that the records of the police station where the applicant had allegedly been ill‑treated did not show that he had entered the station during the relevant period. The prosecutor referred to the police officers’, lawyer O.’s and the expert’s statements. The prosecutor considered that the applicant’s account of ill-treatment was not consistent with his injuries.
32.  On 12 July 2012 the Donetsk Regional Court of Appeal upheld the applicant’s conviction. It also noted that according to the findings of the prosecutor’s office, the applicant had been handcuffed on 19 July 2010 and there was no evidence that he had been released afterwards. In view of those findings, the Court of Appeal concluded that the applicant’s allegations that he had been kept in detention from 19 to 22 July 2010 were credible and that that period of detention was to be deducted from his sentence. However, the Court of Appeal did not establish any causal link between that irregular detention and his confession. The Court of Appeal also held that the trial court had not erred in admitting the applicant’s statement given during the pre-trial investigation, since the applicant’s rights had been explained to him prior to questioning, a lawyer had been present and the applicant had not told him of any ill-treatment.
33.  The applicant appealed on points of law, raising the same arguments as those raised before the Court of Appeal and also arguing that the discrepancies between his statements made during the pre-trial investigation and the testimony given during the trial were due to the ill-treatment to which he had been subjected.
34.  On 19 March 2013 the High Specialised Civil and Criminal Court upheld the judgment of the trial court and the ruling of the Court of Appeal.