Moldova will have to pay over €20,000 damages to two female applicants who complained to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), IPN reports.
In one of the cases, Ecaterina Dorosheva, who was arrested on the street by several police officers wearing plain clothes on suspicion of possession of drugs, complained that she was ill-treated by the police officers before being taken to the police station. At the police station she was held until the next morning. In a medical report, a forensic doctor found that the applicant presented numerous bruises to her face, arms and hips. An x-ray examination of the applicant’s head showed that the applicant also had a broken nose.
According to a press release of the public association “Jurists for Human Rights”, Ecaterina Dorosheva lodged a criminal complaint with the Prosecutor’s Office concerning her ill-treatment by the police. The Rascani Prosecutor’s Office refused to initiate criminal proceedings on the ground that the applicant’s complaint was ill‑founded. The decision was based on the statements of the accused police officers who had denied having ill-treated the applicant and on the fact that there was a possibility that the applicant’s injuries were the result of her falling over. The ECHR held that the bruises appeared as a result of ill-treatment while in police custody and obliged Moldova to pay the woman €12,000 in respect of non-pecuniary damage.
In the second case, the applicant, whose name is not made public, complained that she was raped. The accused man submitted that he disagreed with the conclusions of the medical report that revealed the presence of bruises and of traces of semen in the woman’s vagina. He admitted that he slapped the woman, but denied having raped her, saying initially that the sexual intercourse took place by mutual consent, but later denied having had sex with her. The Strasbourg Court ruled that the criminal investigation had been ineffective and ordered that the state should pay €10,000 in respect of non-pecuniary damage and €2,000 for costs and expenses.
