Police had shot at the applicant’s car being driven through road blocks. The claimant was injured. After an administrative investigation seven police officers were prosecuted but acquitted.
Held: There had been striking omissions in the conduct of the investigation which had prevented the national court from making as full a finding of fact in the criminal trial as it might otherwise have done. Accordingly the authorities had failed to carry out an effective investigation of the incident and that there had been a violation of article 2: ‘The obligation to protect the right to life under Article 2 of the Convention, read in conjunction with the state’s general duty under Article 1 to ‘secure to everyone within [its] jurisdiction the rights and freedoms defined in [the] Convention’, requires by implication that there should be some form of effective official investigation when individuals have been killed as a result of the use of force. The essential purpose of such an investigation is to secure the effective implementation of the domestic laws safeguarding the right to life and, in those cases involving state agents or bodies, to ensure their accountability for deaths occurring under their responsibility. Since often, in practice, the true circumstances of the death in such cases are largely confined within the knowledge of state officials or authorities, the bringing of appropriate domestic proceedings, such as a criminal prosecution, disciplinary proceedings and proceedings for the exercise of remedies available to victims and their families, will be conditioned by an adequate official investigation, which must be independent and impartial. The same reasoning applies in the case under consideration, where the Court has found that the force used by the police against the applicant endangered his life.’
Citations:
50385/99, (2004) 41 EHRR 1092, [2004] ECHR 694
Links:
Cited by:
Cited – JL, Regina (on the Application of) v Secretary of State for Justice; Regina (L (A Patient)) v Secretary of State for the Home Department HL 26-Nov-2008
The prisoner was left with serious injury after attempting suicide in prison. He said that there was a human rights duty to hold an investigation into the circumstances leading up to this.
Held: There existed a similar duty to hold an enhanced . .
Cited – Sarjantson v Humberside Police CA 18-Oct-2013
The claimant had been severely injured in an attack by a group of young men. He said that the defendant had failed in its duty to protect him and his family. He now appealed against the action being struck out.
Held: the judge’s interpretation . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Human Rights
Updated: 01 July 2022; Ref: scu.227682
