4.  The applicant was born in 1963 and is currently serving a prison sentence. 5.  On 14 August 2008 the applicant was arrested in Orel on suspicion of assault and rape. According to the applicant, during his time in police custody police officers from the Severnyy district police department in Orel and the operational search division of the Orel regional police department (ОВД по Северному району г. Орла и ОРЧ УВД по Орловской области) subjected him to ill-treatment to force him to confess to the crimes. The police officers allegedly handcuffed the applicant and physically assaulted him, punching and kicking him multiple times in the face, legs and body. 6.  On 15 August 2008 the Orel inter-district investigation unit of the investigative committee for the Orel region (“the investigative committee”) ordered a forensic medical examination of the applicant. It began on 15 August 2008 and was completed on 29 August 2008. According to the report (no. 2378/5a), the applicant had the following injuries: (i) three scratches on his right cheek; (ii) two bruises on his neck; (iii) two bruises on his chest; (iv) two bruises on his back; (v) eleven bruises and an abrasion on his right upper limb; (vi) nine bruises and an abrasion on his left upper limb; (vii) an abrasion on his right lower leg; (viii) an abrasion on his left hip; and (ix) an abrasion on his left buttock. 7.  According to the expert, the applicant’s injuries had been caused by blunt objects with a limited surface area one to three days before the examination and had not caused any actual bodily harm to the applicant. 8.  The expert did not exclude the possibility that the applicant’s bruises on his wrists could have been caused by handcuffs, and also concluded that the applicant had had thirty-four points on his body where force had been used, and had sustained no less than twenty-three blows. 9.  In reply to an investigator’s question whether the injuries could have been self-inflicted, the expert stated that the injuries were within the reach of the applicant’s hands, except for the injuries on the back, which could have been received as a result of the applicant being struck by or striking himself against a blunt object with a limited striking surface (the expert’s “explanations” of 26 June 2009). 10.  According to the IVS (temporary detention centre) medical records, the applicant complained about headache and pain in the back when he was placed in the IVS on 16 August 2008, after being examined at the traumatology centre of the Orel town hospital and diagnosed with contusion to the soft tissues of the head and closed craniocerebral injury (with a question mark). When he was taken out of the IVS at 12.45 p.m. on 18 August 2009 he complained about pain in the area of the wrists and dumb fingers, dizziness and nausea. When he was brought back at 9 p.m. that day (after being examined at the Orel regional hospital where he was diagnosed with contusions to the soft tissues of the head and abrasions to the face) he complained about headache and had abrasions on the forehead and on the back, explaining that he had received them at the Severnyy district police station. On 19 August 2008 he complained about headache and dizziness, and had abrasions on the face, forehead, wrists and left elbow, which – according to him – he had received at the Severnyy district police station the day before. 11.  According to pre-trial detention facility IZ-57/1, on 20 August 2008 the applicant had abrasions above the left eyebrow, on the left cheek, the wrists and the right elbow. 12.  On 18 August 2008 the applicant lodged complaints with the Severnyy district prosecutor’s office of Orel and the investigative committee against the police officers, requesting that they be prosecuted. 13.  On 19 August 2008 the investigative committee received material in relation to the applicant’s complaint of ill-treatment. 14.  On the dates specified below, and in accordance with Article 24 § 1 (1) or (2) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, officials at the investigative committee issued refusals to initiate criminal proceedings against the police officers under Article 286 § 3 of the Criminal Code (abuse of powers) for no case to answer. Those refusals were systematically overruled by the higher authority within the investigative committee as premature, unsubstantiated and based on incomplete inquiries, and the investigation authorities were ordered to carry out additional inquiries. The refusals were issued and overruled on the following dates:
 
Refusal No.
Issued on:
Overruled on:
(i)
19 December 2008
18 February 2009
(ii)
27 February 2009
12 May 2009
(iii)
26 June 2009
date unknown
(iv)
21 August 2009
6 May 2010
(v)
16 May 2010
19 October 2010
(vi)
29 October 2010 15.  The investigative committee based its decision on the police officers’ explanations denying the applicant’s ill-treatment. They stated that they had arrested the applicant in the night time on suspicion of having committed the crimes, that in the course of the arrest they had tripped the applicant up, twisted his hand behind his back and handcuffed him since he had tried to escape, and that they had interviewed him at the Severnyy district police department before the arrival of an investigator next morning to draw up an official record of his arrest. They also interviewed the applicant on 18 August 2008 about his complaint of ill-treatment at the Severnyy district police, which had been communicated to the police on 16 August 2008 by the traumatology centre of the town hospital. According to the police officers, the applicant had fallen before his arrest (being drunk) and at the IVS detention centre, and had inflicted injuries on himself at the police station. According to the applicant’s explanations, he had not resisted his arrest, he had been beaten up at the time of his arrest and also during the night at the Severnyy district police station and when brought there for investigative activities thereafter. As a reaction to his ill‑treatment and false accusations of crimes he had tried to bang his head against the desk and, on 18 August 2008, to jump out of the window of the Severnyy district police station, but had been stopped. Police officer R.D. had thrown him to the floor and stepped on his face. The applicant denied the police officers’ allegations of self-inflicted injuries and stated that he had signed the explanation about allegedly falling before the arrest under the threats of continued ill‑treatment from police officers S.D. and I.B., who had beaten him up before. According to statements by the applicant’s girlfriend, she heard the applicant screaming from being allegedly beaten up during his arrest and at the police station; several days later at the police station he had complained to her that police officers had beaten him up; he had had abrasions on the face; and he had lost consciousness during a confrontation between them and the ambulance had been called. 16.  The most recent refusal to institute criminal proceedings against the police officers of 29 October 2010 maintained the findings made in the previous refusals (for example, the refusal of 26 June 2009) that the police had lawfully applied force during the applicant’s arrest, that the applicant had attempted to inflict injuries on himself, which was coherent with the forensic medical expert’s conclusion that the injuries, except for the injuries on the back, had been within the reach of his hands. By alleging the police ill‑treatment the applicant had tried to escape prosecution and to blacken the police officers’ honour and dignity. 17.  On 16 April 2009 the Zavodskiy District Court of Orel convicted the applicant of physical assaults and rapes involving three women victims, and sentenced him to thirteen years and five months’ imprisonment. 18.  At trial, the applicant denied his guilt and complained about the police ill-treatment. The trial court acknowledged the appearance of injuries on him as they had been recorded by the expert, but noted that that could not serve as evidence of his innocence in relation to the crimes which had been committed. The trial court also noted that the pre-investigation inquiry had been pending with respect to his alleged ill-treatment, and that an examination of that issue fell outside the scope of the applicant’s criminal case. 19.  On 9 June 2009 the Orel Regional Court dismissed the applicant’s appeal and upheld the trial court’s conclusions.