European Court of Human Rights Declares Romanian Romani Case Admissible

11 March 2005

In a decision issued on September 21, 2004, the European Court of Human Rights declared admissible the case Viorel Carabulea v Romania, filed in 1998 by Mr Carabulea whose brother, Mr Gabriel Carabulea, a 26-year-old Romani man, died in police custody under suspicious circumstances.

On April 13, 1996, officers from Bucharest's 14th District Police Department detained 26-year-old Gabriel Carabulea and later the same day he was transferred to the 9th District Police Department. Mr Carabulea remained in police custody until his death in the Fundeni Hospital in Bucharest on the morning of May 3, 1996. The death certificate lists the cause of death to be acute cardio-respiratory insufficiency and bronchial pneumonia. Photographs of Mr Carabulea's dead body, however, taken by a photographer at the request of the victim's family before the burial, reveal massive bruising on his genitals, chest and head. Mr Carabulea reportedly told his wife that he had been brutally mistreated by the police. An investigation into the incident, conducted by the Bucharest Military Prosecutor's Office under case file No. 527/P/1996, concluded on August 20, 1996, that Mr Carabulea's death was "non-violent and due to organic causes," and that the investigation should be closed. A second investigation opened in February 1997 by the Military Section of the General Prosecutor's Office confirmed the initial decision not to pursue the case in a final non-indictment decision on March 4, 1998.

Having exhausted domestic remedies, on December 22, 1998, with the assistance of the ERRC and local council Monica Macovei, Mr V. Carabulea filed an application with the European Court of Human Rights alleging violations of Article 2 (right to life), 3 (prohibition of torture), 6.1 (right to a fair trial by an independent tribunal) and 14 (prohibition of discrimination) of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Right and Fundamental Freedoms.

Comprehensive information on the human rights situation of Roma in Romania, including on matters concerning the systemic failure of Romanian authorities to provide adequate remedy to Roma when they fall victim of serious human rights abuses, is included in the ERRC Country Report State of Impunity: Human Rights Abuse of Roma in Romania, available HERE.

(ERRC)

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