Communicated on 19 February 2014
FIRST SECTION
Application no. 20136/11
Marina ILIEVSKA
against the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
lodged on 24 March 2011
STATEMENT OF FACTS
The applicant, Ms Marina Ilievska, is a Macedonian national, who was born in 1976 and lives in Kriva Palanka. She is represented before the Court by Mr B. Angelovski, a lawyer practising in Kriva Palanka.
On 24 April 2009 the applicant was operated on for stomach cancer and subsequently underwent chemotherapy. On 29 October 2009 she had a nervous breakdown, whereupon her husband requested medical assistance from the hospital in Kriva Palanka (a city located 100 km away from Skopje). Doctor C.T. gave instructions for her to be transported by ambulance to the Skopje Psychiatric Clinic.
According to the applicant, on that day, at around 5 pm., an ambulance arrived in front of the applicant’s house. Two police officers, who were later identified as M.N. and I.A. in the subsequent criminal proceedings, dragged her to the ambulance ignoring her cries of pain from the surgery. After she was put in the ambulance, she was strapped to a trolley and her hands handcuffed behind her back. The applicant alleges that on the way to Skopje she was hit, pinched and threatened by the police officers. She was taken to the psychiatric hospital, “Bardovci”, in Skopje, where she remained until 31 October 2009. As stated in the notice of discharge from Bardovci Hospital, when admitted, the applicant had “several bruises of different sizes on her body and limbs, most probably recent”. She was discharged at her husband’s request “without having been examined or treated”.
On 31 October 2009 the applicant was examined in Kriva Palanka Hospital. According to the medical certificate of that date, the applicant had haematomas on her elbows, as well as several bruises and scratches on her calves, stomach and back. As stated in the certificate, the injuries amounted to mild bodily injury.
In submissions of 27 January and 18 February 2010, the applicant brought private criminal charges of medical malpractice against Dr C.T. and V.S., a nurse who had accompanied the applicant during her transfer to Skopje, and against M.N. and I.A., the police officers, for inflicting ill-treatment and mild bodily injury. In support of her complaint, she attached the medical certificates.
On 8 June 2010 the public prosecutor’s office of Kriva Palanka rejected the applicant’s complaint, finding that the alleged offences were not subject to State prosecution. On 14 June 2010 the applicant, in the capacity of a subsidiary prosecutor, took over the prosecution and brought private charges before the Kriva Palanka Court of First Instance.
On 6 October 2010 the trial court heard C.T., M.N., I.A., the applicant and her husband. It also admitted the above-mentioned medical reports in evidence together with photographs showing the injuries on the applicant’s body. On the same date, it delivered a judgment acquitting C.T., M.N. and I.A. for lack of evidence. It also discontinued the proceedings against V.S., who had meanwhile passed away. The court established that Dr C.T. had given instructions for the applicant to be transported to the Skopje Psychiatric Clinic with the assistance of the police. Those instructions had been issued on the basis of a request by the applicant’s husband for medical assistance given the applicant’s unstable mental condition at the time. The applicant was not examined by Dr C.T., and M.N. and I.A. were in the ambulance in which she was transported from Kriva Palanka to Skopje. The applicant’s husband did not accompany her during the transfer. Relying on M.N. and I.A.’s oral evidence, the court found that they had not used any force against the applicant. It held that there was no evidence that the applicant’s injuries specified in the medical certificates had been inflicted while she was being transported from Kriva Palanka to Skopje. On 15 December 2010 the Skopje Court of Appeal upheld the facts established and reasoning given by the trial court. The fact that the applicant had been hospitalised in Bardovci Hospital instead of in the Skopje Psychiatric Clinic, as instructed by Dr C.T., was irrelevant as she had received adequate medical care.
On 9 March 2011 the public prosecutor informed the applicant that there were no grounds for lodging a request for review of the legality of the judgments.
According to the applicant, she has never suffered from any mental illness and nor was she receiving any medical treatment in that respect.
COMPLAINT
The applicant complains that she was ill-treated by the police officers during her transfer by ambulance to Bardovci Hospital. The treatment to which she was subjected on that occasion violated her rights under Article 3 of the Convention.
QUESTION TO THE PARTIES
Was the applicant subjected to inhuman or degrading treatment during her transfer from Kriva Palanka to Bardovci Hospital, in breach of Article 3 of the Convention?
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