When Stanciu turned to the Romanian courts for justice, he was denied. National judges decided that the physical abuse he suffered was not harsh enough to constitute "ill-treatment" according to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).

Victor Stanciu vs. Romania (70040/13) reached the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) in 2013. Upon hearing Stanciu case, the Strasbourg court disagreed with the findings of the Romanian judges, ruling in favour of Stanciu and against the state. It represented yet another guilty verdict against Romania for police violence, an issue the state has long struggled to address.

Beaten and sent home

A neighbour complained to the police after Victor Stanciu removed some things from his flat and put them in the common hallway while he repainted his walls. Although there was no altercation between the neighbour and Stanciu, on the evening of 11 December 2011, two police officers from Bucharest Police Station no. 19 appeared at Stanciu's door. He was sleeping at the time. When he opened the door, they asked him to show them an ID. They did not tell him who they were or why they were there.

As he was not given a reason to show his ID, he joked with them, replying "some other time". This outraged the officers, who burst into his apartment, threw him to the floor and handcuffed him. Scared by their aggressive behaviour, Stanciu’s partner brought them his identity card, his disability pension card and his card showing he was involved in the Romanian Revolution of 1989. The police officers then took him and those documents to the police station. According to Stanciu, the police officers then beat with fists, feet and batons in almost all areas of his body. The beating, to the best of Stanciu's recollection, lasted roughly 10 minutes.

After they beat him, the police officers left him in a room alone. Stanciu says he couldn't find enough strength to ask permission to go to the toilet and wet himself. Seeing that he had peed himself, one of the officers said to him, "You’d better go home instead of making a mess in the police station."

He went to the Institute of Forensic Medicine instead, where medical professionals found traces of violence on his body that "could have been produced by be struck with a hard object" and decided he needed four to five days of care.

Investigation blames the victim

Shortly after the events, Victor Stanciu filed a formal complaint against the police officers. Ten months after the incident, a few police officers carried out a brief investigation into his allegation. The prosecutor assigned to the case decided not to file criminal charges against those accused of physical abuse. The investigation was based on the similar statements of the two police officers and the inappropriate, inaccurate testimony of a neighbour, who claimed Stanciu was not beaten (the neighbor wasn’t present at the police station when the incident occurred).

Documents from the investigation state that Victor Stanciu is well known for being violent and a heavy drinker. However, no evidence was brought in support of these accusations, and even if such evidence had been presented, it wouldn't have justified the police violence Stanciu was subjected to.

In addition to his physical abuse, Stanciu was also fined 100 lei (22 euros) for "refusing to provide the information necessary to verify his identity". It is also noteworthy that the official documentation of the fine makes no mention of an aggressiveness from the victim.

Stanciu filed a suit against the police because he believed he did nothing to justify the violence used against him. The Romanian judges assigned to the case approach it in the same way as the investigators: they did nothing to attempt to clarify the circumstances leading up to the violence, even though the court prosecutor did not deny the use of force against Stanciu. The judges, who themselves acknowledged the use of force, got past this by saying that such force is justified in situations where an arrested person attempts to refuse handcuffs.

In their decision, the judges mentioned that the injuries on Victor Stanciu's body might have been caused when he fell while being handcuffed.

According to the Romanian court, "For the existence of the crime of torture, deeds must have a certain intensity and duration in order to fulfill the required elements of such offence as provided in art 267 ind.1 of the Criminal Code, which is not the case here".

The findings of the European Court

Victor Stanciu complained to the European Court of Human Rights in 2013, where he was legally represented by lawyer Nicoleta Popescu from Liberties member the Association for the Defence of Human Rights in Romania-the Helsinki Committee (APADOR-CH). He complained of violations of Article 3 (prohibition of torture and inhuman and degrading treatment) and of Article 13 (lack of an effective investigation) of the European Convention on Human Rights, since there is no way under Romanian law to challenge the findings of a prosecutor. Moreover, as in so many other cases when police violence is alleged, no police officer was found guilty of any wrong doing by the Romanian judges.

In its judgement, the ECtHR recalled that, in such situations, the burden of proof falls on the state. The Strasbourg court also found that in this case, neither the investigation nor the trial were sufficient to establish what really happened. The ECtHR underline that the investigation, which was carried out too late, does not prove that the applicant was violent in any way; it could only be established that was disrespectful to the police officers. Furthermore, the investigation carried out by Romanian authorities did not go into any detail about the force used against Stanciu - how he was immobilised and what actions or instruments could have caused the wounds on his body.

The Court of Human Rights ruled that Article 3 of the ECHR has been violated in Stanciu's case, as that the force used against him met the definition of torture or inhuman and degrading treatment. It also found that the state did not conduct an effective investigation to discover and punish the perpetrators of violence. Under the ruling, the Romanian state will have to pay Victor Stanciu damages amounting to 9,000 euros, plus the costs related to the trial.

You can find statistics on abuse carried out by Romanian police officers here.