14 Jan Serbian authorities have failed to provide the prisoner with protection against abuse and inhuman and degrading treatment

In the case of Gjini v. Serbia (application no. 1128/16) the European Court of Human Rights held, unanimously, that there had been:

• a violation of Article 3 (prohibition of torture and inhuman or degrading treatment) of the Convention owing to the authorities’ failure to protect the applicant from being ill-treated by his prison cell mates, and
• a violation of Article 3 of the Convention because of the lack of an investigation into his complaints.

The applicant complaint that during his period in detention he was subjected to assault and humiliation by his cellmates, including being raped after he was drugged. His cellmates later found out about his Croatian and Albanian origin and began to treat him even worse.

Applicant stated that he was made to fight another prisoner and was then beaten by his cellmates for hitting a Serb. He was also made to sing Serbian nationalist songs. His His head, and eyebrows had been shaved – which is a sign in prison that someone has been raped. He stated that the prison guards knew what was going on, but they did not undertake anything.

The Court found in particular that the applicant had made credible claims of being a victim of violence from his cellmates in prison. It should have been obvious to prison staff at the time of the events that he was being ill-treated, but they had done nothing to protect him.

The State had also failed to carry out an investigation or launch a prosecution over his complaints, even though the authorities must have been aware of them because he won compensation in civil proceedings and complained to various bodies (the President, the Ombudsman and the Ministry of Justice) about what had happened to him, but no official investigation had ever taken place.

References from the offical website of the European Court of Human Rights