pushes the detainee, out of fear, to hide the real origin of the injury. This has a negative impact on the
thorough documentation of possible injuries and timely notification to the investigative body.
In order to detect the fact of ill-treatment, it is important for the doctor to establish a connection between
the injuries on the detainee's body and the methods of inflicting the injuries indicated by the detainee.307
Doctors should make an effort to obtain detailed, credible information in order to determine more
accurately the circumstances indicated by the detainee, whether it could have caused injury to the
person's body.
Doctors at the temporary placement isolators continue to document the injuries on the detainee's body
with deficiencies.308 Even though compared to 2019, the share of cases where the circumstances of the
injury are incompletely and/or not described at all has decreased, such cases are still more than half of
the cases documented in the protocols drawn up according to the Istanbul Protocol. Out of 377 cases
documented in the protocol drawn up in accordance with the Istanbul Protocol in 2020, 157 (42%) cases
were fully described, 220 (58%) cases were incompletely and/or not described at all.309 Of particular
concern to the preventive group is the fact that the doctors determine the relation between the existing
injury and the circumstances of its occurrence, while the circumstances of receiving the injury are
incomplete or not described at all.310 In contrast, the doctors have not established a connection in cases
where the circumstances of the injury are fully described.311 Therefore, the Public Defender believes that
doctors do not pay proper attention to the issue of documenting injuries and ignore the requirements of
the Istanbul Protocol.
Out of 377 cases processed by the Special Preventive Group and documented according to the Istanbul
Protocol, photos were taken in 67 (17.7%) cases. The group saw 50 photos, 4 of which were taken
satisfactorily, while in 46 cases the quality was unsatisfactory, namely, the problem was focused photos,
insufficient and inadequate lighting. Further, there is still no uniform rule for storing photos taken in
accordance with the Istanbul Protocol in temporary detention facilities.312
As in previous years, there are still cases when the detainee suffered injuries and did not notify the State
Inspector's Office. Out of the 463 cases processed in 2020, in 43 (9.3%) cases they did not notify the State
Inspector, including cases where the detainee suffered facial and eye injuries and the degree and color
of the injuries indicated that they were newly received injuries. It should be noted that this figure is lower
Guide to Effective Investigation and Documentation of Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment ("Istanbul Protocol"), para. 104.
308 Out of 463 cases reviewed in 2020, 377 (84.1%) were documented with injuries recorded under the Istanbul Protocol.
309 In 275 (78%) of the 351 cases documented under the Istanbul Protocol in 2019, the circumstances were not fully
described.
310 Out of 216 cases where the circumstances of the injuries are incompletely described, in 85 cases (39%) the doctors had
established connection.
311 Out of 157 cases where the injuries were fully described, the doctor had not established the connection in 19 cases.
312 Photos are mostly stored in a folder in the folder placed on computer desktop. Often the photo documents do not have
a name, surname and date. There were cases when doctors could not find the photos.
307
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