6.  Mr Grigoryan and Ms Sergeyeva were born in 1981 and 1975 respectively and live in Kyiv. The former is an ethnic Armenian, and at the time of the incident had had refugee status in Ukraine since 1997. It appears that at the relevant time they were unmarried life partners. 7.  At some time after 11 p.m. on 6 April 2010 the applicants and two of their acquaintances, Mr Y. K. and Ms Y. Yu., were travelling in a taxi driven by N. K. They were returning from a picnic in the course of which alcohol had been consumed. According to the taxi driver, the applicants’ level of intoxication was “above average”. 8.  According to the applicants, the police stopped the car and asked the Mr Grigoryan to get out. According to their acquaintances and the taxi driver, a police car drew up beside the taxi at traffic lights in Kurbasa Street in Kyiv and Mr Grigoryan opened his passenger-side window, leaned out, waved his hands and either started singing or said something to the officers in the police patrol car. The acquaintances could not hear what he said because loud music was playing in the taxi. According to the police, Mr Grigoryan, while leaning out of the car window, made obscene gestures and swore at them. The police asked him to get out of the car and show his identification, which he eventually did. According to the taxi driver, Mr Grigoryan initially refused to get out of the car and the officers tried to extricate him by force, but in his submissions before the Court he did not allege that any excessive force had been used on this occasion. Indeed, in his submissions it is suggested that he was fully cooperative, got out of the car voluntarily and identified himself. Ms Sergeyeva also got out of the car and joined the discussion, after which the applicants, without putting up any resistance, got into the police car and were taken to a police station. 9.  On arrival at the police station the patrol officers handed over the applicants to police Major A., the station’s duty officer. 10.  According to the Government, immediately upon the applicants’ arrival at the police station, Major A. drew up arrest and administrative offence reports in respect of both applicants. The reports state that they were drawn up at 11.50 p.m. on 6 April 2010. According to the reports, the applicants were arrested for and accused of “petty hooliganism” (“дрібне хуліганство”), namely swearing in the street in an intoxicated state and refusing to desist despite the police officers’ warnings, by which conduct public order had been disturbed. On the pre-printed part of the report forms, the grounds for arresting them are cited as the need to stop the commission of the offence and to draw up a report (see relevant provisions of the Code of Administrative Offences in paragraph 34 (i) and (iii) below). According to the applicants, the reports were given to them to sign only the next morning immediately prior to their release. 11.  It is evident from subsequent findings made by the authorities (see paragraph 32 below) that, while the administrative reports were being drawn up, Mr Grigoryan continued yelling, swearing and attempting to hit the officers. To stop this, his arms were twisted behind his back and he was bound. The police report on the “tying up” procedure states that he remained tied up for ten minutes, from 11.55 p.m. to 12.05 a.m. According to him, at around 12.30 a.m. on 7 April 2010 three officers entered his cell. They shouted insults referring to his Armenian ethnic origin (“банобак”, “черножопый”, “чурка”), threw him on the ground, and tied his hands and right leg together behind his back. They also kicked and throttled him. According to the applicant, he was left lying bound on the floor until about 4.30 a.m. 12.  In the course of the subsequent investigation, Major A. explained that Mr Grigoryan was initially released after remaining bound for ten minutes but at around 1 a.m. he again started hitting the door of his cell with hands, feet and torso. The police then overcame his resistance and tied him up for another thirty minutes. 13.  According to Ms Sergeyeva, she was able to hear Mr Grigoryan being beaten from her cell and this caused her distress. She pulled a glass lampshade from the ceiling, damaging the wiring, and threw it against the cell’s barred door, shattering it. Several officers then entered the cell, bound her and left her tied up for half an hour, according to the official report on the “tying up” procedure. She alleged that while tying her up, the officers also hit her, spat on her, called her an “Armenian whore” and threatened to rape her. 14.  Reports on the tying up of both applicants were drawn up by Major A. on pre-printed forms. The pre-printed forms state that the tying up procedure was used to stop unruly conduct (“буйство”) and prevent self‑harm by an intoxicated individual. 15.  According to the taxi driver, he accompanied the applicants to the police station and waited for them until about 2 a.m. At some point, apparently waiting outside the building, he heard the applicants’ voices inside, shouting and asking somebody not to hit them. 16.  At 4.30 a.m. on 7 April 2010 the applicants were transferred to the central police station of the Svyatoshynskyy District (hereinafter “the district”), arriving there at 5.20 a.m. There, a senior district police official ruled on their case, imposing fines equivalent to about EUR 4.70 on each of them. The fines were paid the same day. 17.  Between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. the applicants signed the aforementioned administrative offence reports (see paragraph 10 above), without adding any objections, and were released. The release record relating to Mr Grigoryan includes a handwritten note reading “I will not do this again” (“больше не буду”). According to the applicants, they signed without objection because the police threatened that if they did not cooperate, the fine would be replaced with fifteen days’ administrative detention (see paragraph 33 below). 18.  Later the same day forensic medical expert N. examined the applicants at their request and drew up a report noting that they had numerous bruises on their faces and bodies, which could have been inflicted on 7 April 2010. In particular Mr Grigoryan had haematomas in the following areas: forehead, left cheekbone, right shoulder, jaw, right side of the neck, clavicle, left hypochondrium, stomach, right elbow, right shoulder-blade area, popliteal spaces (back of the knees), and ankles. The expert also observed bloating and bluish colour on his right hand and two parallel left-to-right abrasions on his forehead and chin. 19.  When questioned by the prosecutor’s office in the course of the subsequent pre-investigation enquiries, the expert expressed the opinion that the above injuries suffered by Mr Grigoryan were the result of at least twenty impacts by blunt objects. The expert believed that they could not have been caused by falling over and that the injuries on Ms Sergeyeva’s upper limbs could be explained through her having been tied up. 20.  On 8 April 2010 Ms Sergeyeva complained to the prosecutor’s office about what she described as unlawful arrest and beatings by the police. She presented an account of events essentially consistent with the applicants’ account set out in paragraphs 7 to 17 above. However, it appears that she did not cite any indications of ethnic prejudice on the part of the police. 21.  On 12 April 2010 Mr Grigoryan lodged a similar complaint. He stated in particular that on arrival at the police station he had immediately been put in a cell. Ms Sergeyeva had been shouting and demanding an explanation as to why they were being detained. He had started hitting the cell door, also wishing to receive an explanation. The police officers had entered, tied him up and continued hitting him for about thirty minutes while uttering insults referring to his ethnic origin (see paragraph 11 above). 22. From 13-15 April 2010 the district prosecutor interviewed the applicants, the arresting officers, Major A. and two other officers involved in the events at the police station. 23.  On 16 April 2010 the district prosecutor decided not to institute criminal proceedings against Major A. and two other officers involved in the events at the police station in view of the lack of a corpus delicti in their actions. The prosecutor’s office relied essentially on the police officers’ statements, according to which the applicants had been tied up in order to stop their disorderly behaviour at the police station and although the applicants had offered resistance, only the force necessary to control them and to bind them had been applied. 24.  On 21 April 2010 the Kyiv prosecutor’s office overruled the decision not to institute proceedings on the grounds that not all possible enquiries had been made. In particular, it pointed out that other arrestees who might have been at the police station at the time should have been interviewed and the applicants should have been asked whether they had signed the administrative offence reports and about any comments they might have made on them. 25.  On 30 April 2010 the district prosecutor’s office again refused to institute proceedings, adding that the applicants had been interviewed and had confirmed that they had drunk alcohol that night and had signed the administrative offence reports. There had been no other arrestees at the police station that night. 26.  On 26 May 2010 the applicants complained to the Prosecutor General’s Office that the investigation was not progressing. They alleged that they had been victims of crimes falling within the provisions of Articles 161 (discrimination), 365 (exceeding power or authority) and 371 (knowingly illegal arrest or detention) of the Criminal Code. 27.  On 25 August 2010 the Kyiv prosecutor’s office overruled the decision of 30 April 2010 on the grounds that the arresting officers had not been interviewed concerning the grounds for the arrest, the enquiry had not examined the allegation that ethnic prejudice had motivated the ill-treatment and, furthermore, no medical specialist had been interviewed to clarify the possible origins of the recorded injuries. 28.  On 9 September 2010 the district prosecutor again refused to institute criminal proceedings. He found that the grounds for arrest had been that Mr Grigoryan had made obscene gestures towards police officers and that the second applicant had sworn at them. Referring to the results of additional interviews with the arresting officers, the prosecutor found that allegations of racial discrimination or insults were unfounded. The prosecutor’s office also repeated the statements of the applicants’ acquaintances who were in the taxi with them at the time of arrest and who made statements in the course of the internal police inquiry (see paragraphs 7 above and 32 below). The prosecutor added that, although he had managed to interview Mr Grigoryan, Ms Sergeyeva could not be interviewed because she was apparently suffering from an acute episode of her chronic schizophrenia. Finally, the prosecutor’s office quoted the results of an interview with the medical expert regarding the origins of the applicants’ injuries (see paragraph 19 above). 29.  On 20 December 2010 the Kyiv prosecutor’s office overruled the decision of 9 September 2010. 30.  On 30 December 2010, 8 April and 30 September 2011 the district prosecutor’s office again refused to institute criminal proceedings, giving essentially the same reasons. On 17 March, 18 August and 12 December 2011 respectively the Kyiv Svyatoshynsky District Court declared those decisions premature. 31.  On 30 July 2012 the district prosecutor again refused to institute proceedings. 32.  On 23 April 2010 Ms Sergeyeva asked the chief of Kyiv police to investigate the legality of the police officers’ actions. Her complaint contained no reference to alleged ethnic prejudice on the part of the police. On 25 May 2010 the personnel inspectorate of the city police department drew up a report on the internal inquiry ‒ following which it was discontinued ‒ concluding that there were contradictions between the applicants’ and the officers’ accounts. It forwarded the evidential material gathered in connection with the inquiry to the prosecutor’s office to be taken into consideration in the context of the pre-investigation enquiries. It would appear that this report contains the only coherent official account of the events of the night of 6 to 7 April 2010.