Court rules against Romania in police shooting human rights row

Newsroom 11/02/2014 | 16:39

Judges have today ruled that Romania breached human rights law by exempting a police officer involved in a civilian shooting from all criminal liability without effective judicial investigation, writes humanrightseurope.org.

In its chamber judgment in the case of Grămadă v. Romania (application no. 14974/09), which is not final, the European Court of Human Rights held, unanimously, that there had been:

A violation of Article 3 (prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment) of the European Convention on Human Rights.

The case concerned the shooting of Grămadă by a police officer during the arrest of a man who was on the run and took refuge in Grămadă’s home.

The court noted that the police officer concerned had not hesitated to use his firearm against the applicant and thus appeared to have acted in a wholly unconsidered manner, which would probably not have been the case had he had the benefit of proper instructions. Furthermore, in view of the glaring omissions in the investigation, the authorities could not be said to have genuinely sought to ascertain whether the use of force by the police officer had been excessive.

The court held that Romania was to pay the applicant 4,000 euros (EUR) in respect of non-pecuniary damage.

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