FIFTH SECTION

DECISION

Application no. 29054/04
by Roman Dmitriyevich TROFIMENKO
against Russia

The European Court of Human Rights (Fifth Section), sitting on 9 November 2010 as a Committee composed of:

Mark Villiger, President,
Anatoly Kovler,
Isabelle Berro-Lefèvre, judges,
and Stephen Phillips, Deputy Section Registrar,

Having regard to the above application lodged on 22 June 2004,

Having regard to the observations submitted by the respondent Government,

Having deliberated, decides as follows:

THE FACTS

The applicant, Mr Roman Dmitriyevich Trofimenko, was a Russian national who was born in 1966 and died in 2008. The Russian Government (“the Government”) were represented by Mr G. Matyushkin, Representative of the Russian Federation at the European Court of Human Rights.

The facts of the case, as submitted by the parties, may be summarised as follows.

On 22 May 2001 the applicant was arrested and detained on suspicion of theft and robbery.

On 3 August 2001, when in the remand prison, he attempted to commit suicide. He received medical treatment in the regional prison hospital and detention centre medical unit.

On 20 June 2003 the applicant made a second attempt at suicide. He knocked the blade of a knife into his chest, in the heart region. The blade remained in the applicant’s body until 3 August 2004 causing pain. The blade was not removed for a long time due to the absence of necessary facilities in the prison hospital.

On 25 November 2003 the Yelizovo Town Court of the Kamchatka Region composed of a presiding professional judge and two lay judges convicted the applicant of robbery and sentenced him to five years and six months’ imprisonment.

The applicant appealed, challenging the judgment on a number of points.

On 6 April 2004 the Kamchatka Regional Court rejected his appeal and upheld the judgment of 25 November 2003. The applicant was not represented before