6.30 in the morning on 5 February, held in detention until 7.30 pm, and that upon return his face was swollen, and he had bruises on his shoulders, back, legs and over his kidneys. There was clotted blood on his legs and his backside was dark blue all over. He had to stay in bed for ten days and put on compresses, and take pills for the pain. He told her that he had been beaten with a steel wire and baseball bats and fainted from the beating. further to articles 157 and 158 of the CPC. If he decides that there is no basis for the institution of a formal judicial investigation, he should inform the complainant of this decision, who can then exercise his prerogative to take over the prosecution of the case on his own behalf—i.e., in his capacity of a “private prosecutor”. As the Public Prosecutor failed formally to dismiss his complaint, the complainant concludes that he was denied the right personally to take over the prosecution of the case. As the CPC sets no time limit in which the public prosecutor must decide whether or not to request a formal judicial investigation into the incident, this legal provision is open to abuse. 2.3 Fearing possible reprisals by police and not fully aware of his legal rights, the complainant did not file a criminal complaint with the Novi Sad Municipal Public Prosecutor’s Office until 7 November 1996, in which he alleged that an unidentified police officer had committed the crime of extracting a statement by force in violation of 65 of the Serbian Criminal Code (SCC). According to the complainant, he had been arrested several times prior to the incident in question and had been interrogated about several unrelated criminal offences. The complainant considers that the illtreatment to which he was subjected was intended to obtain his confession for one or more of these crimes. The complaint 3.1 The complainant claims that he has exhausted all available criminal domestic remedies by having filed a complaint with the Public Prosecutor’s Office. In the complainant’s view, civil/ administrative remedies would not provide sufficient redress in his case.1 3.2 The complainant submits that the allegations of violations of the Convention should be interpreted against a backdrop of systematic police brutality to which the Roma and others in the State party are subjected, as well as the generally poor human rights situation in the State party.2 He claims a violation of article 2, paragraph 1, read in connection with articles 1, and 16, paragraph 1, for having been subjected to ill-treatment for the purposes of obtaining a confession, or otherwise intimidating or punishing him.3 2.4 The complaint was immediately registered by the Public Prosecutor’s Office. But only on 17 September 1999 (more than three and a half years (43 months) following the incident at issue and 34 months since the complainant filed the criminal complaint) did the Public Prosecutor’s Office request the investigating judge of the Novi Sad Municipal Court to undertake preliminary “investigatory actions”. Such investigation precedes the possible subsequent institution of formal judicial investigations, for which the identity of the suspect must be ascertained. The investigating judge of the Novi Sad Municipal Court accepted the public prosecutor’s request and opened a case file. Since that date, the prosecuting authorities have taken no concrete steps, with a view to identifying the police officer concerned. According to the complainant, if the intent of the investigating judge was really to identify the police in question, he could have heard other police officers present in the police station at the time of the abuse, and especially the on-duty shift commander who must have known the names of all officers working that particular shift. Finally, the complainant indicated in his criminal complaint that during his detention in the police station he was taken to the Homicide Division, which in and of itself could have served as one of the starting points for an official investigation into the incident at issue. No investigation has been undertaken. 3.3 He claims a violation of article 12 alone and/or read in connection with 16, paragraph 1, as the State party’s authorities failed to conduct an official investigation into the incident, which gave rise to this complaint for more than three and a half years following the incident in question, and almost 34 months since the complainant filed a criminal complaint with the Public Prosecutor’s Office. To date, the officer remains unidentified and 1 He refers to international jurisprudence to support this claim. 2 In this context, the complainant provides reports from various national and international non-governmental organizations and the Concluding Observations of CAT of 1998, A/54/44, paras. 35–52. 3 To support his argument that the treatment he received was torture, cruel, inhuman and/or degrading treatment or punishment, he refers to the United Nations Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials, the United Nations Body of Principles for the protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment, the United Nations Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials, the Council of Europe’s Declaration on the Police and the European Court of Human Rights. 2.5 According to the complainant, under article 153 (1) of the CPC, if the public prosecutor finds on the basis of the evidence, that there is reasonable suspicion that a certain person has committed a criminal offence, he should request the investigating judge to institute a formal judicial investigation 86