THIRD SECTION
Application no. 33200/11
Pavel OKOLISAN
against the Republic of Moldova
lodged on 15 April 2011
STATEMENT OF FACTS
1. The applicant, Mr Pavel Okolisan, is a Serbian national, who was born in 1957 and lives in Chișinău. He is represented before the Court by Mr V. Pleșca, a lawyer practising in Chișinău.
2. The facts of the case, as submitted by the applicant, may be summarised as follows.
A. The background of the case
3. On 5 November 2003 the applicant signed a contract on behalf of a company (C.), according to which C. bought 988 tons of wheat from another company (M.) and undertook to pay 4,151,869 Moldovan lei (MDL, approximately 269,000 euros) before the end of November 2003.
4. On 15 March 2004 M.’s director asked for a criminal investigation to be started into the actions of C.’s director and the applicant for alleged fraud.
5. On 1 June 2006 the prosecutor decided to institute criminal proceedings. On 4 June 2007 the applicant was charged with fraud. On the same day he was declared a wanted person, the prosecutor noting his address in the Serbian Republic as his domicile.
B. The applicant’s arrest and detention pending trial
6. On 15 September 2010 the applicant was arrested in Hungary and was extradited to Moldova on 17 January 2011.
7. In an appeal to the Chișinău Court of Appeal the applicant referred to his poor sate of health: he was ill with prostate cancer. He also submitted that the relations between C. and M. had had a commercial character and that the failure to fully carry out the contract could not bring about the application of criminal law.
8. On 19 April 2011 the applicant asked to be released, relying inter alia on a letter from his doctor in Austria concerning his treatment and recommendations after surgery for cancer in 2008. That request was refused on 20 April 2011 by the Buiucani District Court, which gave the same reasons as it had before.
9. On 23 August 2011 the Chișinău Court of Appeal replaced the applicant’s detention with house arrest. On 23 January 2012 the Buiucani District Court replaced that preventive measure with an undertaking not to leave the country.
C. Conditions of detention
10. The applicant describes in the following way the conditions of his detention in prison no. 13, where he was detained between 22 January and 23 August 2011. The cell was in the basement and had no access to natural light. A window opened towards another room which had an opening in its roof, thus giving a glimpse of daylight. The cell was damp and cold, the clothes would rotten as a result. It was full of parasitic insects and of rats. Water was yellow colour because the pipes were rusted, but he had to drink it in the absence of an alternative. Even that water was not always available, so the detainees gathered it in plastic bottles. There was no toilet and detainees had to satisfy natural needs in a bucket, which caused horrible smell. Most detainees smoked in the cell, which caused the applicant to suffer. Food served sometimes consisted of warm water and old bread, other times of inedible cereals full of insects.
11. According to the applicant, he did not benefit from medical treatment required to treat his illness. The prison did not have a doctor specialised in treating cancer, nor sophisticated equipment with which he had been treated in Austria before his arrest. He received basic medications.
COMPLAINTS
12. The applicant complains under Article 3 of the Convention that he was detained in inhuman conditions and not given appropriate medical assistance.
13. He also complains under Article 13 that he did not have effective remedies in respect of his complains under Article 3 of the Convention.
QUESTIONS TO THE PARTIES
1. Has there been a violation of Article 3 of the Convention? In particular, was the applicant detained in inhuman conditions of detention and was he given medical treatment required to treat his illness?
2. Did the applicant have at his disposal remedies in respect of his complaint under Article 3, as required under Article 13 of the Convention?
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