CAT/C/34/D/171/2000 Page 7 3.3 He claims a violation of article 12 alone and/or read in connection with 16, paragraph 1, as the State party’s authorities failed to conduct an official investigation into the incident, which gave rise to this complaint for more than three and a half years following the incident in question, and almost 34 months since the complainant filed a criminal complaint with the Public Prosecutor’s Office. To date, the officer remains unidentified and consequently the institution of formal judicial investigations is impossible. Since the public prosecutor’s office has failed formally to dismiss the complainant’s criminal complaint, he cannot personally take over the prosecution of the case in his capacity of a “private prosecutor”. The complainant also alleges that the public prosecutors in Serbia and Montenegro seldom institute criminal proceedings against police officers accused of misconduct and delay the dismissal of complaints, sometimes by years, thereby denying the injured party the right to prosecute his/her own case. 3.4 The complainant claims a violation of articles 13 alone or read in connection with article 16 of the Convention, as despite exhausting all criminal domestic remedies, 54 months following the incident and almost 34 months after the submission of his criminal complaint he has received no redress for the violation of his rights. To date, the State party’s authorities have not even identified the police officer concerned.4 3.5 Article 14 is said to be violated since the complainant was denied a criminal remedy and has thus been barred from obtaining fair and adequate compensation in a civil lawsuit. The complainant explains that under domestic law, there are two different procedures, through which compensation for criminal offences may be pursued: by criminal proceedings under article 103 of the CPC following criminal proceedings, or/and by civil action for damages under articles 154 and 200 of the Law on Obligations. The first avenue was not an option, as no criminal proceedings were instituted and the second was not availed of by the complainant, as it is the practice of the State party’s courts to suspend civil proceedings for damages arising from Officials, the United Nations Body of Principles for the protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment, the United Nations Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials, the Council of Europe’s Declaration on the Police and the European Court of Human Rights. 4 The complainant refers to Communication No. 59/1996, Encarnacio Blanco Abad v. Spain, Views adopted on 14 May 1998.