Strasbourg has ruled in the case of ‘Kats and Others v. Ukraine’ (regarding the death of Olga Bilyak in a pre-trial detention centre)

On 18 December, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg issued a ruling in the case of ‘Kats and Others v. Ukraine’, confirming a violation of Article 2 (‘Right to life’) and Article 5 (‘Right to liberty and security’) of the European Convention on Human Rights.

This case concerned the tragic death in February 2004 of the poet Olga Bilyak in Kyiv Pre-trial Detention Centre No. 13, in relation to whose criminal charges no final decision has yet been made.

Olga Bilyak was arrested and imprisoned on suspicion of robbery on 14 April 2003. However, the applicants and the lawyers who worked on the case are convinced that the charges were fabricated.

Olga Bilyak suffered from a number of chronic illnesses which, in the conditions of the pre-trial detention centre and against the background of an HIV infection, exacerbated rapidly and required immediate treatment. On 26 September 2003, her father, Oleg Kats, sent a letter to the detention centre administration demanding that his HIV-positive daughter be hospitalised. However, representatives of the detention centre refused to place her in a specialist hospital. Similarly, in January 2004, the prosecutor’s office denied a request to release Olga.

While in custody, Olga Bilyak kept a diary in which she described everything that was happening to her and those around her in the conditions of Pre-trial Detention Centre No. 13 (After her death, her father posted this diary on the Internet, and it can be read at http://olgabilyak.kiev.ua/ ). According to the diary, Olga’s health deteriorated seriously in December 2003. However, despite serious breathing problems, a constant high temperature, and rapid weight loss, the necessary diagnostics were not performed, and treatment was limited to the use of antipyretic drugs.

At the beginning of January 2004, Olga complained to doctors of stomach pain and vomiting, after which she was diagnosed with chronic gastritis. On 21 January 2004, the detention centre administration acknowledged that the detainee was HIV-positive, and on this basis, on 29 January, the local police department issued a demand for her release.

Against the background of delays in her release, Olga Bilyak died within the walls of the detention centre on 1 February 2004. An examination showed that she died from a disease related to HIV infection – progressive purulent pneumonia.

The European Court unanimously ruled that there had been a violation of Article 2 of the Convention both regarding the State’s duty to protect the life of a person in custody and regarding the procedural duty to conduct an effective and independent investigation into the circumstances of her death.

In addition, the Court found a violation of Article 5 of the Convention, although the rights guaranteed by this article are considered ‘non-transferable’. However, in this case, the complaint regarding the illegality of the detention is closely linked to the violation of Article 2 found by the Court – the decision to change the preventive measure regarding O. Bilyak was made on 29 January 2004, yet she was not released immediately, and she died in the pre-trial detention centre on 1 February 2004. Those three days could have saved her life.