CAT/C/35/D/172/2000 Page 5 view, this was an effort to evade responsibility for subjecting him to the physical abuse he had been subjected to during that period. 2.4 Upon his release, and being ignorant of his rights under the law and frightened by his experiences in the preceding three days, the complainant did not seek immediate medical assistance. He did, however, go to a privately owned photographic studio and had photographs taken of his injuries. He has provided these photos, dated 19 November 1997. On 24 November 1997, and having consulted a lawyer, the complainant attended the Clinical Centre of the Novi Sad Forensic Medicine Institute for an examination. However, he never received the report and was told that it had been sent to the investigating judge. The case file (No. Kri. 922/97) was examined on several occasions by the complainant’s counsel but did not contain the report. In response to queries from counsel, the Medical Institute stated in a letter, dated 30 September 1999, that the report had been forwarded to the judge of the Novi Sad District Court. 4 To date this report has not been found in the case file. 2.5 Also on 24 November 1997, the complainant filed a criminal complaint with the Municipal Public Prosecutor’s Office in Novi Sad. He gave a detailed account of the incident and alleged that the following crimes had been committed “extraction of statements, civil injury and slight bodily harm.” He also submitted a medial certificate allegedly relating to injuries caused to the complainant by police violence in 1994 (unrelated to the incident in question), a medical report dated 18 November 1997, the police release order, the Novi Sad District Court Order, and photographs of his injuries. Despite many inquiries as to the status of his complaint, including a letter from the complainant’s lawyer, dated 3 March 1999, the Novi Sad Municipal Public Prosecutor’s Office, has failed to date to respond in any way to the complaint. Criminal proceedings against the complainant with respect to the charges against him for larceny (Case file No. Kri. 922/97) also remain pending. The complainant is currently serving a four- year prison term for larceny in the Sremska Mitrovica Penitentiary, unrelated to case file, No. Kri 922/97. 2.6 According to the complainant, under article 153 (1) of the CPC, if the public prosecutor finds on the basis of the evidence, that there is reasonable suspicion that a certain person has committed a criminal offence, he should request the investigating judge to institute a formal judicial investigation further to articles 157 and 158 of the CPC. If he decides that there is no basis for the institution of a formal judicial investigation, he should inform the complainant of this decision, who can then exercise his prerogative to take over the prosecution of the case on his own behalf – i.e. in his capacity of a “private prosecutor”. As the Public Prosecutor did not formally dismiss his complaint, the complainant concludes that he was denied the right personally to take over prosecution of the case. As the CPC sets no time limit in which the public prosecutor must decide whether or not to request a formal judicial investigation into the incident, this provision is open to abuse. The complaint: 3.1 The complainant claims that he has exhausted all available criminal domestic remedies by having filed a complaint with the Public Prosecutor’s Office. In the 4 This letter has been provided.