Information Note on the Court’s case-law No. 168
November 2013
Bouyid v. Belgium - 23380/09
Judgment 21.11.2013 [Section V]
Article 3
Degrading treatment
Alleged administration of a slap by a police officer to an individual during police interview: no violation
[This case was referred to the Grand Chamber on 24 March 2014]
Facts – The applicants, two brothers, one of whom was a minor at the time, were questioned separately by police officers about unrelated incidents. They both alleged that they had been slapped once on the face by the officers. They filed a criminal complaint, with a request for civil-party status, but were unsuccessful.
Law – Article 3: Police officers who struck individuals during questioning at the very least committed a breach of ethics and showed a deplorable lack of professionalism. The Court endorsed the recommendation of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) after its visit to Belgium in 2005: given the risk of ill-treatment against individuals deprived of liberty, the competent authorities had to be vigilant in this area, especially with regard to minors*. In the present case, however, even supposing that the slap had been given, it was on both occasions an isolated incident, inflicted unthinkingly by police officers who had lost their temper because of the applicants’ disrespectful and provocative behaviour and not for the purpose of extracting confessions. It had, moreover, taken place in a very tense atmosphere involving members of the applicants’ families and the local police. In those circumstances, even though one of the applicants was only 17 at the time, and whilst it was understandable that they felt strong resentment, assuming the events had taken place as alleged, each slap had been a one-off act in a situation of nervous tension and without any serious or long-term effect. Such acts, although they were unacceptable, could not be regarded as generating a degree of humiliation or debasement sufficient to characterise a breach of Article 3.
Conclusion: no violation (unanimously).
* Document CPT/Inf (2006) 15, § 11.
© Council of Europe/European Court of Human Rights
This summary by the Registry does not bind the Court.
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