Published on 4 March 2024
FIFTH SECTION
Application no. 8228/22
Olena Oleksiyivna GOSTRYAK
against Ukraine
lodged on 30 January 2022
communicated on 16 February 2024
SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE
The application concerns the death of the applicant’s son in custody and subsequent investigation. Since 2018 the applicant’s son had been detained in the Kyiv Pre-Trial Detention Facility. On 6 April 2021 he was sentenced to 9- years’ imprisonment for an attempted rape of a minor. Six days later he was found dead in his cell. On the same day the criminal proceedings concerning the alleged murder of the applicant’s son were instituted. On 8 May 2021 the proceedings were terminated, indicating that the cause of death was acute ischemic heart disease. On 23 June 2021 a local court allowed the applicant’s request and quashed the resolution of 8 May 2021. According to the conclusion of the medical examination of 11 August 2021 the applicant’s son died of tuberculosis; there were several minor bodily injuries on his body which might have occurred between one and three days before his death. Referring to Articles 2 and 3 of the Convention, the applicant questions the findings of the examination, stating that her son had never complained of tuberculosis and alleging that the domestic authorities have failed to discharge their positive obligation to protect him while he was in custody. The criminal proceedings are still pending.
QUESTIONS TO THE PARTIES
1. Has the applicant’s son’s right to life, ensured by Article 2 of the Convention, been violated in the present case?
2. Having regard to the procedural protection of the right to life (see paragraph 104 of Salman v. Turkey [GC], no. 21986/93, ECHR 2000-VII), was the investigation in the present case by the domestic authorities in breach of Article 2 of the Convention?
3. Has the applicant’s son been subjected to torture, inhuman or degrading treatment, in breach of Article 3 of the Convention?