| Miris document ID: 1024567788541 |
| Author: |
European Court of Human Rights |
| Language: |
English |
| Source: |
European Court of Human Rights
|
| Country: |
Bulgaria |
| Category: |
judgment/decision |
| Government level: |
International |
| Guiding principle: |
The Court decided that Article 2 (right to life), Article 3 (torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment) Article 5(1) (right to liberty and lawful arrest) and Article 13 (effective remedy before a national authority) have been violated.The Court decided that is not ¿beyond reasonable doubt¿ that the mr. Zabchekov's death and the lack of a meaningful investigation into it were motivated by racial prejudice, as claimed by the applicant so no violation of Article 14 (non-discrimination) has been established. The judge Bonello had a different opinion as regards this point and he voted for a violation of Article 14: ¿The majority found that in the present case it had not been established ¿beyond reasonable doubt¿ that in the death of the seventeen-years-old Rom, Angel Zabchekov that followed the devoted attentions of police officers, his ethnicity was ¿a determining factor¿ with those police officers who facilitated the young Rom's access to the fastest lane from Razgrad to eternity. This inability to establish a link between physical abuse and ethnicity comes notwithstanding that the red light about the special treatment of Roma by the Bulgarian police in breach of Articles 2 and 3 has been flashing insistently and alarmingly: this is the third case of death or brutality of Roma at the hands of Bulgarian police officers decided by the Court (see the Assenov and others, and the Velikova judgements). According to reports of inter-governmental organisations and human rights groups, the Bulgarian law enforcement services boast of an unenviable primacy in racially prejudiced ill-treatment of Roma.¿ |
| Date of
judgement:
|
2002-6-13 |
| Document number: |
38361/97 |
| Official version: |
yes |
| Legally binding: |
yes |
| Subject areas: |
fair trial; non-discrimination |
| Minority groups: |
Roma/Gypsies |
| Related laws: |
National Police Act; Code of Criminal Procedure |
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