8
ANGUELOVA v. BULGARIA JUDGMENT
38. B stated that Dr Ivanova had said to him and his colleague: “You
must have known Mr Zabchekov's condition”, and that she had insisted that
she had not seen him breathing.
39. Dr Mihailov stated that in the police station he had noticed bruises
on Mr Zabchekov's chest and that at that time the boy had still been alive
but had been unconscious with a weak pulse.
Dr Mihailov had then asked the police officers how long the boy had
been in such a condition. The police officers had replied: “He was brought
to the police station in that condition.
40. Dr Ivanova stated that at about 5 a.m. she had been asked by
Dr Mihailov to verify whether a patient who had been brought to the
hospital had died. Having found that no cardiac activity was noticeable she
had attempted cardiac massage, but to no avail. She further stated that, when
she had asked why Dr Mihailov, and not herself, as the internist on duty,
had been dispatched to the police station, the hospital employee in charge of
emergencies had replied that the request for an ambulance had been said to
concern a child, and so it had been decided to send the paediatrician on
duty.
F. The register kept at the Razgrad police station
41. According to normal practice, all detentions are recorded in a
register kept at the police station. The register contains a series of entries
organised in columns: the number assigned to the detainee, the name of the
officer entering information into the register, the name of the detainee, the
reasons for detention, the action taken and the time of release. Information
corresponding to each detainee is entered in chronological order.
42. At the Court's request the Government submitted a copy of the
Razgrad police station's register for 29 January 1996. The register does not
contain an entry for Mr Zabchekov. However, it contains an entry for an
“unidentified person” who was assigned number 72.
43. The register does not contain a separate column recording the time
of detention. In respect of some of the detainees listed on the same page the
time of detention is mentioned together with the date. In respect of the
“unidentified person”, as with some of the other detainees listed on the same
page, there is no mention of the time of detention in the column indicating
the date. However, immediately after the words “unidentified person”, there
appears, spread over two columns and two lines, the entry “29 I 96, 01.oo”.
A visual examination of the copy of the register shows that the figure “1.oo”
has been written over a figure which, as far as legible, had originally read
“3.oo” or “5.oo”.
44. It can be also observed that the registration numbers on the same
page have been written over. From the copy provided by the Government it
is difficult to see the original numbers that were altered. Nevertheless, it can