FIFTH SECTION      CASE OF LOBAS v. UKRAINE (Application no. 21380/04)    JUDGMENT    STRASBOURG 7 November 2013 FINAL 07/02/2014 This judgment has become final under Article 44 § 2 of the Convention. It may be subject to editorial revision. In the case of Lobas v. Ukraine,The European Court of Human Rights (Fifth Section), sitting as a Chamber composed of: Mark Villiger, President, Ann Power-Forde, André Potocki, Paul Lemmens, Helena Jäderblom, Aleš Pejchal, judges, Stanislav Shevchuk, ad hoc judge,and Claudia Westerdiek, Section Registrar,Having deliberated in private on 15 October 2013,Delivers the following judgment, which was adopted on that date:PROCEDURE1. The case originated in an application (no. 21380/04) against Ukraine lodged with the Court under Article 34 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (“the Convention”) by a Ukrainian national, Mr Sergiy Mykolayovych Lobas (“the applicant”), on 28 April 2004.2. The applicant, who had been granted legal aid, was represented by Mr A. Kristenko, a lawyer practising in Kharkiv. The Ukrainian Government (“the Government”) were represented by their Agent, Mr N. Kulchytskyy, of the Ministry of Justice.3. The applicant complained, in particular, that he had been ill-treated by the police, that his pre-trial detention had been unlawful and that his trial had been unfair. He also alleged that he had not been able to obtain copies of documents needed to substantiate his application.4. On 9 November 2007 notice of the application was given to the Government. At that stage of the proceedings the Government was not invited to submit observations on the case pending the outcome of another case that partly concerned similar issue under Article 34 of the Convention (see Naydyon v. Ukraine, no. 16474/03, in which the Court delivered a judgment on 14 October 2010). On 22 June 2011 the Court invited the Government to submit observations on the admissibility and merits of the present application.5. Ms G. Yudkivska, the judge elected in respect of Ukraine, was unable to sit in the case (Rule 28 of the Rules of Court). The President of the Chamber decided to appoint Mr S. Shevchuk to sit as an ad hoc judge (Rule 29 § 1(b)).THE FACTSI. THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE CASE6. The applicant was born in 1964 and is currently serving a prison sentence in Sokal Correctional Colony.7. On 21 December 2002 three people were murdered in the village of Rosava in Kyiv Region (oblast).A. The applicant’s alleged ill-treatment by the police1. The applicant’s version of events8. According to the applicant, on 29 December 2002 he was arrested by the police on suspicion of having committed the murders. As he denied his responsibility for the murders during his questioning at the police station, ten police officers, including officer S., tortured him with the aim of forcing him to confess to having committed the crimes. In his application to the Court the applicant initially stated that his ill-treatment had included beatings, the administration of electric shocks, hanging over a horizontal crowbar while handcuffed with his head pointing downwards (the applicant called this ill-treatment “lom” (лом)) and suffocation using a gas mask. In his observations dated 7 February 2012, prepared with the assistance of his representative, the applicant stated that the police officers had suffocated him using a gas mask which had not left any visible traces on his body or face and thus during his medical examination on 30 December 2002 no injuries had been noted (see paragraph 19 below). As a result of his il‑treatment, the applicant had lost consciousness several times and had eventually confessed to having committed the crimes. In particular, the applicant signed a confession which he claimed had been written by his wife and the investigator.9. Subsequently, the police officers explained to the applicant how the murders had been committed. Under threat of torture the applicant repeated that version of the events during a crime scene reconstruction on 30 December 2002 which was recorded on video.10. Some time later the applicant was questioned by the investigator. During the questioning session the applicant was given alcohol to drink and was forced to sign verbatim records which he did not read.11. The applicant was not assisted by a lawyer during the crime scene reconstruction and the questioning session.12. After questioning the applicant was taken to Myronivka police temporary detention centre (“the ITT”).13. During his detention in the ITT from 30 December to 2 January 2002 the applicant was severely beaten up by unspecified police officers. They also administered electric shocks to him, suffocated him using a gas mask and subjected him to “lom” in order to force him to sign a number of other documents prepared by the police. As a result of the ill-treatment, the applicant suffered an injury to his arm which was discovered about seven months later (see paragraph 39 below).14. The applicant argued that the police officers had had no qualms about torturing him, as they had already obtained a medical certificate stating that no injuries had been discovered on the applicant’s body. The applicant had not been medically examined in the ITT.15. The applicant stated that during his detention in the ITT his complaints of ill-treatment and of the use of unlawful methods of investigating the case had been blocked by the investigator and the administration of the ITT, and that he had only been given an opportunity to raise those complaints at trial.16. In support of his complaints of torture, the applicant submitted a letter which he claimed had been written by his father on 20 December 2007, stating that on 10 March 2003 his father had visited him in the ITT and had noted that he had suffered multiple injuries to his face and arms and that his arms had not been “functioning”. According to that letter, the applicant had informed his father that he had been tortured by the police.17. The applicant also submitted a letter which he stated had been written on 11 March 2008 by a person who had seen him at the pre-trial detention centre in Kyiv (“the SIZO”) in September 2003. In the letter it was stated that the applicant had had an open wound of about 5 cm on his left arm and had said that he had been tortured by the police.2. The Government’s version of events18. According to the Government, on 30 December 2002 the applicant confessed in writing to the police that he had murdered three people and indicated that the murder weapons were in his rented house. In the course of a search subsequently conducted in that house on the same day, he voluntarily handed over to police officers a knife, an axe and a grey jacket, which he said he had worn during the murders. The axe and the jacket had had blood stains on them and the jacket had smelt of smoke. Subsequently, the applicant expressed the wish to be questioned in the presence of a lawyer.

Article of the Convention at issue: Article 34
Outcome: violation