KURKIN v. RUSSIA - 51098/07 (Judgment : Prohibition of torture : Third Section Committee)

The European Court of Human Rights (Third Section), sitting as a Committee composed of:

��������� Darian Pavli, President, ��������� Dmitry Dedov, ��������� Peeter Roosma, judges, and Olga Chernishova, Deputy Section Registrar,

the application (no. 51098/07 ) against the Russian Federation lodged with the Court under Article 34 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (�the Convention�) by a Russian national, Mr Gennadiy Nikolayevich Kurkin (�the applicant�), on 15 October 2007;

the decision to give notice to the Russian Government (�the Government�) of the complaints concerning the applicant�s alleged ill‑treatment and unlawful detention, the authorities� failure to carry out an effective investigation, the use by the trial court of a confession given by him as a result of his alleged ill‑treatment and in the absence of a lawyer, and the lack of an effective remedy in respect of the ill-treatment complaint;

The present application raises issues of the applicant�s alleged ill‑treatment and unrecorded detention at the police station, of the lack of an effective investigation into his ill-treatment complaint and of the alleged unfairness of the criminal proceedings on account of the use by the trial court of his self-incriminating statements allegedly obtained under duress.