CCPR/C/126/D/2699/2015
however, he explained that he did not know why he was not feeling well and thought that it
was because of the use of alcohol (para. 2.14), which is corroborated by the medical record
on his admission to the hospital on 23 January 2013 and the testimony of the author on 24
January 2013 to the effect that, having been drunk, he had accepted the suggestion of an
individual named K. to incriminate the police officers. In his deposition (para. 6.5),
however, K. affirmed that he had not suggested that the author should go to the police, nor
had K. witnessed the police putting the author under pressure or inflicting bodily harm on
him on 23 January 2013. According to what K. witnessed, the police had not used violence
and the author had provided his testimonies voluntarily, in the presence of a lawyer.
9.
In court (para. 6.6), the author confirmed that he had not been beaten or subjected to
violence during the investigation. During the interrogations, he had never affirmed that he
had been beaten in order to elicit a forced confession of guilt. According to the author, the
affirmation that K. had beaten him and advised him to write to the police to claim that he
had confessed under duress is false. The interrogations of the author were carried out in the
presence of a lawyer, but he never spoke to the lawyer about any pressure put on him by the
police.
10.
On 4 February 2013 (para. 2.1), 15 August 2013 (para. 2.3), 23 November 2013
(paras. 2.4 and 6.7), investigators refused to open a criminal case against the police officers
in the absence of a corpus delicti. The officer who recorded the author’s statements on 23
January 2013 was interrogated along with two other officers. All three of them denied
having used unlawful methods of interrogation against the author and emphasized the
voluntary nature of the author’s depositions. On 24 April 2014, the city court rejected the
appeal of the author against this refusal (para. 2.5).
11.
The existence of injuries on the author’s body (para. 6.8) as documented by an
expert on 5 November 2013 cannot unilaterally lead to a conclusion of the use of unlawful
methods of investigation to force the author to confess guilt. The interrogations ended on 22
January 2013 at 4.10 p.m., but the allegations were not made until 24 January 2013. In
addition, a number of witnesses confirmed having seen the author with a swollen face on 21
January (that is, before his apprehension by police officers). The State party therefore
considered that the author’s argumentation on the use of unlawful methods against him
appeared to have been correctly assessed by the courts as constituting a defence strategy
and that, accordingly, no violation of any of the author’s rights had occurred in the case
(para. 6.11).
12.
In the face of such contradictory elements on file (see also para. 4.5), I fail to see
how the Committee could reach the conclusion that due weight needed to be given to the
author’s allegations of torture and ill-treatment and that the State party had failed to
demonstrate satisfactorily that its authorities had addressed the allegations in a meaningful
way. I would thus have concluded for a non-violation of the author’s rights under article 7,
read alone and in conjunction with article 2 (3), of the Covenant.
13.
For the same reason, I also fail to see the rationale behind the conclusion of a
violation of the author’s rights under article 14 (3) (g) of the Covenant for the confessions
allegedly obtained under duress. As already stated in paragraphs 8 and 9 of the present
opinion, both the author himself and a witness acknowledged that the author’s testimonies
had been provided voluntarily and in the presence of a lawyer, and that he had not been
beaten or subjected to violence during the investigation. On 7 May 2014 (para. 2.11), the
Kstovsk City Court pronounced the author guilty under article 111 (4) of the Criminal Code,
pertaining to the intentional infliction of a grave injury resulting in the death of the victim,
and sentenced him to seven years’ imprisonment. During the trial, a medical assistant
testified that, on 23 January 2013, during her service, she had visited the author’s home
with a colleague. She further asserted that the author had complained about a headache and
that he was hospitalized with a concussion. Despite this, the appeal court noted that it had
been established that the author’s confessions had been given voluntarily and under no
coercion, in the presence of a lawyer (footnote 6).
14.
On the basis of this information, I would also have concluded, in the present case,
for a non-violation of the author’s rights under article 14 (3) (g) of the Covenant.
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