Information Note on the Court’s case-law No. 98

June 2007

Harutyunyan v. Armenia - 36549/03

Judgment 28.6.2007 [Section III]

Article 6

Criminal proceedings

Article 6-1

Fair hearing

Use at trial of statements obtained from the accused and witnesses through torture: violation

Facts: In 1998 the applicant was drafted into the army. In 2002 the applicant was found guilty of premeditated murder of a fellow serviceman and sentenced to ten years' imprisonment. The court relied, inter alia, on the applicant's confession and on the testimony of two other servicemen, while acknowledging that coercion had been applied to them. The police officers at issue were subsequently found guilty of abuse of power and sentenced to imprisonment. The court established that they had beaten the applicant and the two witnesses with a rubber club, squeezed their fingernails with pliers and clubbed their soles, causing injuries of various degrees. By threatening to continue the ill-treatment, they had forced the applicant to confess to murder, and the two servicemen to state that they had witnessed it. They had also threatened the victims with retaliation if they informed any higher authority about the ill‑treatment. Referring to the above findings, the applicant lodged unsuccessful appeals against his conviction.

Law: The applicant had been coerced into making confession statements and the two witnesses