The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled that Croatia should pay €12,000 in damages to a man who sued it for violating a ban on torture and inhuman treatment after he was arrested for attacking a police officer.

The applicant was arrested in 2011 for trying to attack, while under the influence of alcohol, a police officer in a public place.

He was arrested and taken to a police station where a doctor examined him and found that he had a bruise above his eye.

The man claimed that he had been beaten up in the police van while the police maintained that he had jumped out of the van handcuffed and hit with his head on the ground.

The following day he was released from custody and went to a hospital for an examination where it was established that his nose and one of his ribs were broken, and that he had haematomas under both eyes, both upper arms and the left side of his body, the office of the Croatian representative at the ECHR said.

Misdemeanor proceedings were launched against the applicant for disturbing the public order, after which criminal proceedings, too, were launched against him for attacking a police officer.

During the criminal proceedings, the applicant said that he had been beaten up by the police and the court requested an expert opinion. The expert witness determined that it was possible the applicant had sustained the injuries before his first medical examination at the police station but also after the examination.

The witness determined that the applicant could not have suffered rib fracture the way the police had described it.

The applicant was convicted in the criminal proceedings, and when he appealed against the ruling, an appellate court decided that it was not competent to examine his injuries. The Constitutional Court dismissed his complaint without taking into account his allegations of ill-treatment.

The ECHR determined that Croatia did not provide compelling evidence that the applicant was injured in a different way than the one he described, relying also on the expert witness’s findings. It also found that no competent Croatian body had determined the cause of the applicant’s injuries.

The ECHR also ruled that Croatian authorities did not conduct an efficient investigation into the allegations of ill-treatment even though the applicant’s injuries were examined by an expert witness, because the expert opinion was obtained as part of criminal proceedings and not an independent inquiry.

In addition to damages in the amount of €12,000 due to the violation of guaranteed rights, the ECHR also ruled that the applicant should be awarded €3,000 for costs and expenses.