The applicant, Levan Davitidze, is a Georgian national who was born in 1960. In a judgment of April 2004, upheld in August 2004, he was convicted of the procurement, possession and supply of heroin. The conviction of procurement and possession of drugs was excluded in a supervisory review by the presidium of the Moscow City Court in March 2009, and his prison sentence was reduced from eight years to seven years and six months. Relying on Article 3 (prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment), Mr Davitidze complains that during and following his arrest on 20 August 2003 he was ill-treated by police officers – he alleges in particular that he was hit with a gun handle and that a suffocating technique was used on him – and that there was no effective investigation into those complaints. He also maintains that he was not provided with immediate medical aid following his arrest and that he did not receive regular medical care for his psychiatric condition during his pre-trial detention. Relying on Article 6 § 1 (right to a fair trial), he further complains that he was unfairly convicted of the drug offences, as he had committed them as a result of police entrapment.
Citation: Davitidze v Russia (App no 8810/05) ECHR 30 May 2013
(citation from the official press-release prepared by the European Court of Human Rights)