Makhashevy v. Russia, No. 20546/07, ECtHR (First Section), 31 July 2012

Prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment. Violent behavior by police officers driven by ethnic or racial bias. Obligation to carry out effective investigations. Link between racist attitudes and acts of violence. Prohibition of discrimination. Burden of proof.

Art. 3 ECHR 
Art. 14 ECHR 

1. The authorities’ duty to investigate the existence of a possible link between racist attitudes and an act of violence is an aspect of their procedural obligations arising under Article 3 ECHR, but may also be seen as implicit in their responsibilities under Article 14 ECHR to secure the fundamental value enshrined in Article 3 ECHR without discrimination.
2. Where evidence comes to light of racist verbal abuse being uttered by law-enforcement agents, in connection with the alleged ill treatment of detained persons from an ethnic or other minority, a thorough examination of all the facts should be undertaken in order to discover any possible racial motives (case in which the applicants, persons of Chechen ethnicity, complained to the authorities that they had been subject to ill-treatment and racial verbal abuse by police officers during their custody). 
3. Where the applicants succeed in making a prima facie case that their detention and ill-treatment were not racially neutral, the respondent Government is required to disprove an arguable allegation of discrimination and - if they fail to do so - find a violation of Article 14 ECHR on that basis. Otherwise expressed, in that case the burden of proof as regards the presence or absence of a racist motive on the part of the authorities in an Art. 3 ECHR context is shifted to the respondent Government.