5.  The applicant was born in 1974 and lives in Lviv.
6.  According to the applicant, at about 7 p.m. on 20 February 2002 he was stopped in the street by officers of the municipal guard (муніципальна дружина) and brought to the Lviv medical sobering-up centre, in spite of the fact that he was sober. Y.B., a paramedic working at the centre, concluded, after merely examining the applicant’s appearance and without administering any laboratory tests, that he was suffering “from alcohol intoxication of an intermediate degree.” Accordingly, the applicant was confined in the centre in order to sober up.
7.  At about 7 a.m. on 21 February 2002 the sobering-up centre’s staff informed the applicant’s mother on the telephone of her son’s whereabouts and invited her to pick him up from the centre.
8.  At about 8 a.m. on the same day the applicant’s mother arrived and escorted the applicant home, having paid a service charge of 34.80 hryvnias (UAH) (around 7 euros).
9.  Before being discharged, the applicant signed a report on his confinement (“the confinement report”), which stated that he had been placed in the sobering-up centre at 10.20 p.m. on 20 February 2002 after having consumed 250 millilitres of vodka and that he had no complaints in respect of the sobering-up centre’s staff. This report also contained illegible handwritten observations of the centre’s paramedic concerning the applicant’s pulse and other health-related indicators taken upon his placement in the centre.
10.  At about 1 p.m. on 22 February 2002 the applicant complained to a doctor at Lviv Municipal Clinic No. 3 (“the Municipal Clinic”) that on 20 February 2002 he had been arbitrarily confined in the sobering-up centre, even though he had been sober, and beaten by officers of the municipal guard in response to his peaceful protests.
11.  On the same date the applicant was certified as having no alcohol in his urine. He was also found to be suffering from contusions on one of his elbows and in the eyebrow area. Also on the same date, the police were notified by the medical staff that the applicant had complained about having been beaten.
12.  From 25 February 2002 until 18 March 2002 the applicant continued to be treated as an outpatient at his local polyclinic for the above injuries.
13.  On 15 April 2002 the Lviv Regional Police addressed a letter to the applicant, indicating that the Municipal Clinic’s notification to the police of 22 February 2002 concerning the applicant’s complaint regarding his alleged beating had been registered in their log. It further noted that K., a police officer, had been assigned to conduct an inquiry into that complaint. He had been found liable to be disciplined for inaction on his part, notably for not having questioned the parties concerned. The applicant was also given assurances that the complaint would be investigated further.
14.  On 3 July 2002 the applicant received a letter from the Lviv Prosecutor’s Office stating that an inquiry into his complaints concerning the actions of the municipal guard officers and the sobering-up centre paramedic had concluded that those complaints were ill-founded.
15.  On numerous occasions between July 2002 and April 2003 the applicant complained to various departments in the prosecutors’ office that his allegations of ill-treatment had not been properly investigated – notably, that none of the parties concerned had ever been questioned.
16.  On various dates the prosecutor’s office responded that those complaints had been ill-founded and that on 3 July 2002 the applicant had already received a proper response.
17.  After receiving the final letter (dated 11 July 2003) to this effect, the applicant no longer pursued his attempts to instigate an investigation by the prosecutor’s office.
18.  On 20 August 2007 the Lviv Regional Prosecutor’s Office, having archived the case file material, destroyed it; it did so because the statutory time-limit for archiving a case file following the termination of the relevant investigation had lapsed.
19.  In July 2002 the applicant lodged a civil suit with the Shevchenkivsky District Court in Lviv against the Lviv municipal guard, the municipal guard officers who had brought him to the sobering-up centre and paramedic Y.B. He sought non-pecuniary damages, alleging that his confinement had been arbitrary and that he had been ill-treated.
20.  On 17 August 2002 the chief officer of the municipal guard informed the District Court in a letter that on 20 February 2002 the applicant had been stopped by his officers because he “had been walking unsteadily, falling over, and shouting obscenities”.
21.  At trial, the applicant submitted, inter alia, that he could not describe in detail when and how the injuries had been inflicted on him. He also maintained that on 21 February 2002, following his discharge from the sobering-up centre, he had had to attend a court hearing in an unrelated case. Having been occupied in court for the whole day, he had not been able to visit a doctor until 22 February 2002.
22.  Y.B., the sobering-up centre’s paramedic, submitted that in determining the applicant’s degree of alcohol intoxication he had acted in accordance with “the instruction issued by the medical department of the Ministry of Interior”. According to this instruction, it was not necessary to perform laboratory tests to establish the level of a person’s alcohol intoxication. Such a conclusion was to be made by making a visual examination and by measuring such vital indicators as pulse rate and blood pressure. The paramedic further submitted that the applicant had had no injuries either upon his placement in the facility or upon his release.
23.  On 6 June 2003 the court rejected the applicant’s claims as unsubstantiated. It referred, in particular, to the applicant’s own acknowledgment in the confinement report that he had drunk 250 milliliters of vodka and had no complaints against the staff of the sobering-up centre. As regards the applicant’s ill-treatment complaint, the court noted that the prosecutor’s office had refused to institute criminal proceedings in respect of the incident, having found the applicant’s complaint unsubstantiated. Likewise, the applicant had failed to explain convincingly in court why, having been released on the morning of 21 February 2002, he had first complained of his injuries and had undergone alcohol tests only on 22 February 2002, some thirty hours later. The court noted that the applicant’s claim that he had been occupied by a court hearing for the entire day on 21 February 2002 was unsubstantiated, as the relevant registry records indicated that on that day the applicant had been in court between 9.00 a.m. and 9.20 a.m. only. In these circumstances, the court found that the applicant had most likely sustained his injuries after his release.
24.  The applicant appealed. He submitted, in particular, that the confinement report did not constitute reliable evidence, as it had been signed by him under duress. The report was largely illegible, and contained numerous inaccuracies (for example, the wrong time was given for his arrest). However, the applicant had agreed to sign it because he had been afraid that otherwise he might not be discharged. The applicant also complained that the first-instance court had unreasonably refused his request for the prosecutor’s office to be obliged to produce the results of its inquiry concerning the applicant’s complaints.
25.  On 13 October 2003 the Lviv Regional Court of Appeal rejected the applicant’s appeal, having found that he had failed to substantiate his allegations. It also noted that there had been no need to ask the prosecutor’s office for the results of its inquiry because the fact that it had refused to institute criminal proceedings into the applicant’s complaint had been sufficient to dismiss the matter.
26.  The applicant lodged a cassation appeal. He noted, in particular, that his arrest and confinement had been arbitrary, since neither the confinement report nor any other document stated the circumstances in which he had been arrested or the grounds for his confinement. He further noted that the method by which it had been determined that he had been suffering from alcohol intoxication of an “intermediate degree” had been based on a visual examination only, without any objective tests having been undertaken. This method was arbitrary and neither the defendant authority nor the courts had referred to any specific legal provision governing such a practice. The applicant also submitted that the authorities had acted arbitrarily in not notifying his family of his whereabouts until some twelve hours after he had been deprived of his liberty. He further complained that neither the prosecutor’s office nor the civil courts had made any effort in good faith to establish the circumstances in which he had sustained his injuries; thus, his version of events remained credible and unrebutted.
27.  On 28 March 2006 the Supreme Court of Ukraine rejected the applicant’s request for leave to lodge a cassation appeal.