5.  The applicant was born in 1987 and was serving a prison sentence in Nubarashen penal facility (see paragraph 27 below) at the time when he lodged his application with the Court.
6.  On an unspecified date the applicant was drafted to the Armenian army. At the material time he was performing his military service in the Syunik Region of Armenia.
7.  On 29 April 2006 the dead body of a fellow serviceman, A.H., was found in the forest next to the applicant’s military unit. He was hanging from a tree with his arms tied behind his back with wire. On the same day the military prosecutor’s office of Zangezur garrison instituted criminal proceedings in respect of the death. Shortly afterwards the investigation of the case was taken over by the Military Prosecutor’s Office and assigned to investigator A.K.
8.  According to the materials of the case, on 2 May 2006 the applicant was questioned in the town of Kapan in connection with the criminal case. It appears that on the same day he and another serviceman, R.H., were subjected to disciplinary punishment in the form of ten days’ detention for beating up A.H. the previous month. It further appears that the following day the applicant and R.H. were taken to the Military Police Department of the Ministry of Defence in Yerevan (“the Military Police Department”), where they were held until 12 May 2006.
9.  During their detention at the Military Police Department, the applicant and R.H. were questioned as witnesses in the criminal case. It appears that during questioning on 7 May 2006, R.H. confessed that he and the applicant had murdered A.H.
10.  On an unspecified date the head of the disciplinary isolation facility of the Military Police Department addressed the following letter to investigator A.K.:
“Pursuant to your oral enquiry, we inform you that ... [the applicant] was admitted to the detention facility of the Military Police Department on 3 May 2006 and stayed there until 12 May 2006 after which he was transferred to military unit no. 20440 of the Ministry of Defence ... Upon his admission, during his stay and upon his discharge he had no bodily injuries, and no complaints with regard to his state of health had been received.”
11.  On 17 May 2006 investigator A.K. drew up a record of the applicant’s arrest, which stated that the applicant had been arrested on that day in the Military Police Department on suspicion of beating up and murdering A.H. On the same day he asked the Public Defender’s Office to grant the applicant a defence lawyer, who was assigned the next day.
12.  On 20 May 2006 the applicant was charged with aggravated breach of military discipline rules and aggravated murder, under Article 359 § 2 and Article 104 § 2 (10) of the Criminal Code. In particular, the investigator found that in March 2006 the applicant, together with R.H., had subjected A.H. to beatings and, on 28 April 2006, had murdered him by hanging him from a tree.
13.  On the same day the applicant was taken to the Arabkir and Kanaker-Zeytun District Court of Yerevan. At the request of investigator A.K., the court ordered his remand in custody.
14.  The applicant contested the facts as reflected in the materials of the case file, and alleged that in reality he was taken to the Kapan Military Police Department on 1 May 2006 and was held there until 3 May 2006. Thereafter, he was taken to the disciplinary isolation facility of the Military Police Department, where he was held until 20 May 2006. Throughout the whole period he was subjected to severe beatings and torture by military police officers and investigators, who hit him in the soft parts of the body, as well as the “invisible” parts, including the soles of the feet, forcing him to confess to the murder. No legal representative was allocated to him at that time. R.H. and another serviceman who had been taken to the Military Police Department in connection with the death of A.H. were beaten too. R.H. was unable to withstand the beatings and made confession statements.
15.  On 21 June 2006, while in the Nubarashen detention facility, the applicant lodged a complaint with, inter alia, the General Prosecutor’s Office, stating as follows:
“... On 1 May this year military police officers came to the military outpost and took me [and two other soldiers] to the [military police] department. They took statements from us there and started to beat us. At night [R.H.] and I were kept in the reception area, sitting on the floor with our hands handcuffed to the walls. I was there until 3 May, during which time I witnessed only beatings and cries from different rooms where the soldiers were being beaten. On 3 [May], we, 11 soldiers, were brought to the Military Police Department and I was taken to the room of [a senior officer, A.M.] where they started continuously to beat me, now with more brutal methods. They took off my shoes and with a thin branch started to beat the soles of my feet. They were forcing me to give false incriminatory statements. Late at night they would take me to the disciplinary isolation cell. [Several other co-servicemen] were also kept there, while the rest stayed in a common room. About 10 days later, when I was being questioned as a witness, the investigator took off my shoes. I should mention that I was kept in the isolation cell unlawfully, upon an order from the superior. I was held for 10 days for violation of the internal disciplinary code. Every day they would take me to a room and try, by beatings and threats, to force me to give evidence in the way they wanted. At 1 a.m. on 17 or 18 May the investigator came and told me that my girlfriend was in the next room and that if I refused to testify in the way he wanted, bad things would happen to her. They further threatened me that bad things would also happen to my 17-year-old sister. The head of the [operational intelligence] department [M.Gh.] and his deputy [A.Mar.] would also beat me. When I was not able to eat because my teeth were aching from many punches and slaps, they threatened me and used indecent swearwords. One night, as I was being taken back to the isolation cell [the isolation facility officers] noticed the traces of beatings on my body and warned [the military police officers] not to bring me again to the cell in such condition. [The deputy head A.Mar.] started to beat me and curse at me, asking why I had not told [the isolation cell officers] that I had bumped into a door. I could hear the cries and sobbing of other soldiers coming from the rooms. As one police officer was beating me, the other filmed the beatings on his mobile phone and showed the film, in my presence, to his other colleagues and then they would start to humiliate me. They drove me to such a state that I told them I wanted to die. They immediately put a blank sheet of paper in front of me, gave me a pen and said that if I wrote down that I wished to commit suicide they would assist me in doing so. They were proposing that I give false testimony against [R.H.] in the same words as [R.H.] had testified against me ... After my confrontation with [R.H.] ... he started begging me to forgive him and said that he had been unable to withstand the beatings, pain and fear and that he had given false testimony against me as otherwise bad things would have happened to his family. I was kept in [the military police headquarters] and isolation cell not for 10 days but for 18 days. On 20 May we were taken to the [Arabkir and Kanaker-Zeytun District] court, which ordered our detention. During the court hearing I stated that I had had no involvement in the death of [A.H.] and that I did not plead guilty. On 15 June the investigator, together with my defence lawyer, visited me at the [Nubarashen detention facility] and produced a forensic expert opinion according to which the grains of sand discovered on the soles of my military shoes corresponded to those taken from the site of the crime. I told them that I did not agree with the results of the expert opinion and the investigator threatened to tell the defence lawyer to go out [of the cell] for ten minutes and to [beat me] ... .
I am asking and requesting again that the investigative authorities conduct an impartial and thorough investigation by observing the ... requirements of the criminal process, to find the real murderers and to release me and other innocent persons involved in the investigation from this inhuman nightmare.”
16.  On 21 September investigator A.K., to whom the applicant’s complaint had been forwarded, questioned M.Gh., A.Mar. and A.M., all of whom denied having ill-treated the applicant.
17.  On 23 September 2006 the investigator decided not to institute criminal proceedings. His decision stated as follows:
“[Investigator A.K.] of the Military Prosecutor’s Office... having examined the materials of criminal case ... assigned to me ...
During the investigation of the criminal case [concerning the death of A.H.] the accused [applicant] lodged a complaint with ... the General Prosecutor of Armenia, which [was] received by the Military Prosecutor’s Office. In [that complaint] the accused stated that he and ... another accused, [R.H.], had been beaten during their stay in the Military Police Department by the head of the operational intelligence department [M.Gh.] and his deputy [A.Mar.], and that violence was used against him also in the room of [a senior officer, A.M].
The head of the operational intelligence department [M.Gh.] gave statements according to which no violence had been used against [the applicant] and said that, if such a thing had happened, the military police officer who had applied such violence would have been made to answer for his actions.
Similar statements were made by the deputy head of the operational intelligence department [A.Mar.] and a senior officer [A.M.].
According to the [letter of the head of the disciplinary isolation facility of the Military Police Department, M.T.], there were no traces of bodily injuries on [the applicant] and [R.H.] during their admission and stay in the isolation cell and the latter had not lodged any complaints about their health.
Therefore, the fact is that during the period in which ... [the applicant] and [R.H.] stayed in the Military Police Department, no violence against them by the officers of the above Department has been substantiated during the investigation of the criminal case [concerning the death of A.H. Hence], there is no evidence of a crime.
Based on the above ... I decide not to institute criminal proceedings ... due to the absence of evidence of a crime.”
18.  According to the applicant, that decision was not served on him and he learned about it only after the closure of the investigation, when consulting the criminal case file.
19.  On an unspecified date the investigation was closed.
20.  On 1 November 2006 investigator A.K. provided the materials of the case file to the applicant and his lawyer.
21.  On 14 November 2006 the criminal case was referred to the Syunik Regional Court for trial. It appears that during the trial the applicant and R.H. alleged that they had been ill-treated during the investigation.
22.  It further appears that on 16 May 2007 the Syunik Regional Court, following the applicant’s and R.H.’s allegations of ill-treatment, ordered a forensic medical examination. It apparently decided to stay the proceedings and asked the Military Prosecutor’s Office to address the allegations of ill‑treatment.
23.  According to the report of the applicant’s medical examination drawn up on 15 June 2007, no traces of injury were discovered on his body. The medical examination report then stated that because the examination had been conducted belatedly (a year after the alleged ill-treatment) and there were no medical documents, it was impossible to say whether the applicant had suffered any bodily injuries, since such injuries might have existed but then healed, leaving no trace.
24.  The medical examination of R.H. revealed an old nasal fracture, but according to the medical examination report, it was impossible to establish the date on which it had been sustained. No other bodily injuries were found. It appears that the investigator then questioned several persons, including R.H.’s former co-servicemen, who stated that during their military service they had noticed that R.H.’s nose was deformed and that he had told them that he had injured his nose before his conscription.
25.  On 20 June 2007 the military prosecutor’s office of the Goris garrison refused to institute criminal proceedings concerning R.H.’s allegation of ill-treatment, for lack of evidence of a crime.
26.  On 2 August 2007 the military prosecutor’s office sent a letter to the Syunik Regional Court informing it that the applicant’s and R.H.’s allegations of beatings had not been confirmed. The letter referred to the decisions of 23 September 2006 and 20 June 2007, as well as to the results of the two forensic medical examinations.
27.  On 29 August 2007 the Syunik Regional Court found the applicant guilty of non-aggravated murder in connection with A.H.’s death, under Article 104 § 1 of the Criminal Code, and of breaching military discipline rules, under Article 359 § 2 (2) of the Criminal Code, in connection with A.H.’s beating. It imposed an aggregate sentence of nine and a half years’ imprisonment. R.H. was also found guilty and sentenced to a prison term. The Regional Court found that R.H.’s testimony could be considered as admissible evidence because his allegations of forced confessions had not been substantiated.
28.  On 7 September 2007 the applicant lodged an appeal against the judgment of the Syunik Regional Court, stating that he did not agree with the judgment. He asked the court to quash the judgment and to acquit him since he was innocent.
29.  It appears that all the other parties to the criminal proceedings also lodged appeals against the judgment of the Syunik Regional Court.
30.  On 3 December 2007 the Criminal Court of Appeal dismissed all the appeals and upheld the judgment of 29 August 2007.
31.  On an unspecified date the Military Prosecutor’s Office lodged an appeal on points of law against the judgment of the Court of Appeal, seeking to have the part relating to the evaluation of the offences quashed and a harsher penalty imposed.
32.  On 25 July 2008 the Court of Cassation granted the appeal. It quashed the part of the Court of Appeal’s judgment concerning the evaluation of the offences and remitted the case for a fresh examination.
33.  On 12 November 2008 the Criminal Court of Appeal examined the case anew and changed the applicant’s offence in connection with A.H.’s death to aggravated murder under Article 104 § 2 (10) of the Criminal Code, increasing his sentence to fifteen years’ imprisonment.
34.  On an unspecified date the applicant’s defence lawyer lodged an appeal on points of law against the judgment of the Court of Appeal of 12 November 2008. He claimed, inter alia, that the applicant had been beaten and tortured by military police officers and that when he and R.H. had been taken into custody and questioned as witnesses, R.H. had been forced to make confession statements.
35.  On 25 February 2009 the Court of Cassation declared the appeal on points of law inadmissible. It held that it was precluded from examining the arguments contained in the applicant’s appeal since he had not mentioned them in his appeal of 7 September 2007 and the Criminal Court of Appeal had therefore not examined them. The Court of Cassation, however, referred to the complaint concerning the applicant’s alleged ill-treatment by mentioning investigator A.K.’s decision of 23 September 2006 not to institute criminal proceedings against the military police officers. It further noted that no criminal proceedings had been instituted on account of R.H.’s allegations of ill-treatment.
36.  On 26 March 2009 the applicant lodged his own appeal on points of law against the judgment of 12 November 2008, in which he raised arguments similar to those indicated in his defence lawyer’s appeal.
37.  On 30 April 2009 the Court of Cassation declared the applicant’s appeal inadmissible for lack of merit.
38.  On an unspecified date thereafter the applicant lodged an application with the Constitutional Court, claiming that the Court of Cassation’s refusal in its decision of 25 February 2009 to examine all the arguments indicated in his appeal on points of law was incompatible with the provisions of the Constitution.
39.  On 22 December 2009 the Constitutional Court held that if the Court of Appeal quashed a judgment of the first-instance court and adopted a new legal act, an appeal on points of law should be available to the parties to the proceedings in question.
40.  Following the ruling of the Constitutional Court, on 20 January 2010 the applicant lodged a new appeal on points of law against the judgment of 12 November 2008, claiming, inter alia, that neither the investigative authorities nor the courts had taken into account the fact that he and R.H. had been beaten and tortured by the military police.
41.  On 26 March 2010 the Court of Cassation dismissed the applicant’s appeal. The relevant parts of its decision read as follows:
“In the present case the Court of Cassation will firstly address the following questions put before it: whether the arguments ... that [the applicant] was subjected to ill-treatment by police officers are substantiated, whether [R.H.’s] confession had been extorted as a result of beating and whether the charges had been based on evidence obtained by beating and torture.
... as it appears from the decision of 23 September 2006 ..., no criminal proceedings were instituted ... on account of the ill-treatment of [the applicant] and [R.H.] by ... military police officers for lack of evidence of a crime.
... Consequently, the arguments of the appellant with regard to [the applicant’s] ill-treatment by police officers are unsubstantiated ...”