The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Tuesday pronounced a judgment finding Moldova responsible in a case of ill-treatment and failure to effectively investigate it. Moldova will have to pay the applicant, Nichita Ipate, €15,500 in damages and costs, Info-Prim Neo reports. In 2006, Nichita Ipate complained that the prison staff of the Remand Center no.13, in which he was detained, beat him severely in May 2003 as he refused to move to a different cell, and that his complaint about it was not effectively investigated. Ipate claimed that after he refused to move to a different cell, asking for explanations from the administration, the prison guards punched and kicked him and hit him with rubber truncheons, then banged his head against the wall, causing him severe pain. They swore at him and told him that they were fed up with his complaints about various alleged violations of his rights. When he could no longer resist, he was pushed into another cell, where he ran to the window and broke it, took a piece of glass and slit his wrist in the hope that that would stop the ill-treatment and would ensure a visit from a doctor. However, the assailants continued to beat him up in the cell, and then took him to a psychiatrist. Then the applicant complained to the warden and asked to be seen by medical experts and by representatives of Amnesty International. He declared himself to be on hunger strike until those visits took place. Later, the applicant stopped his hunger strike, informing the prison administration that the reason was his poor state of health. He also referred to the failure to allow him to be seen by a medical expert or Amnesty International. In February 2007, the Prosecutor's Office refused to initiate a criminal investigation into the applicant’s alleged ill-treatment. The prosecutor also referred to the fact that the applicant was considered hostile to the prison administration, for which attitude he had been punished many times. In March 2007, besides being sentenced for what he was originally imprisoned, Ipate was also convicted of threatening with violence five prison guards who had been escorting him to another cell. The Court concluded that “the investigation into the applicant’s complaint of ill-treatment has been inefficient and protracted as a result of repeated refusals to institute criminal proceedings and the failure to carry out in a timely manner essential investigative measures”. Yesterday at a news conference, ahead of the UN International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, Moldovan human rights NGOs noted that inhuman treatment in detention places was seriously aggravated by the fact that the state failed to hold torturers accountable or, if investigations were conducted, symbolic punishments were often imposed on them or the charges against them were dropped.