21/01/2021 (Agence Europe) – In five judgments handed down on Thursday on applications filed in 2014, the European Court of Human Rights found that police brutality and arbitrary detention of demonstrators in Kyiv's Maïdan Square violated several articles of the European Convention on Human Rights. These include the very important Articles 2 (right to life) and 3 (prohibition of torture and inhuman and degrading treatment). The Court considers that, during the demonstrations which took place between November 2013 and February 2014, the authorities deliberately inflicted this type of ill-treatment and holds the State responsible for the murder of a demonstrator. It highlights the existence of a “deliberate strategy on the part of the authorities (...) to obstruct and put an end to initially peaceful protests”, and denounces often ineffective investigations. (VL)