On 13th Jan. 2009, the Strasburg Court announced the judgment of the case Lewandowski and Lewandowska v. Poland, in which the applicants’ son Pawel Lewandowski was arrested and beaten by the two policemen in the evening of 3rd Aug. 2000 while walking on a street, instead of on the spot of the alleged crime, with the suspicion of breaking a windowpane on a notice board. The young man committed suicide, which is the reason why two applicants are in the case, and they complain the right not to suffer from inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment regulated by Article 3 of the Convention was violated by the local policemen. The two applicants, represented by Mr. A. Bodnar from the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights won the case and will get 10,000 Euros’ non-pecuniary damage compensation for their son had suffered relatively serious mental and physical injuries at the hands of policemen.

The Court examined two issues which are the ill-treatment and the relevant investigation in this case. For the first issue, the Court found the Government’s explanation as to the origin of the injuries of the applicants’ son is deficient, since forces may be used only if indispensable and must not be excessive. In other word, the using force by the two policemen was unjustified in the circumstances. When checking this item, the Court illiterates again its strict scrutiny by saying the prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment “in absolute terms, irrespective of the victim’s conduct”. For the second issue, the Court finds a violation of Article 3 too, defining the investigation was superficial, lacked of objectivity because there are several flaws in carrying out the investigation by the Polish prosecutors such like excluding an eye witness’s testimony, failing to hear evidence from a doctor who examined the applicants’ son right after the release, accepting police officers’ testimony automatically.

Justice is practiced by the judgment; however, this is a sad story which should have been avoided. Policemen play a vital role in this society in protecting life and properties of our people, however, how to guarantee the qualified police practice not to infringe upon individual’s rights is as the same important.

Jiao Li