The facts that constitute these cases are widely different. The first case concerns Valdis Jasinskis, who was deaf and mute since birth. One night in 2005, he went to a bar with some friends and then to a student party.  Outside the party, he fell from some steps and lost consciousness. The police and an ambulance were called. The police arrived first, decided not to wait for the ambulance and – assuming Jasinskis was drunk – took him to a “sobering-up cell”. Before leaving they were told that Jasinskis was deaf and mute, but, nevertheless, they took his notepad that he used to communicate with away from him. At the police station no medical examination was carried out. Jasinskis knocked on the walls, but the police ignored him. Completely powerless, he had no way to communicate his needs. Jasinskis fell asleep and could not be woken after 7 hours. After another seven hours, the police finally called an ambulance which allegedly refused to come as they assumed Jasinskis was just suffering from drunkenness. At the insistence of his father, Jasinskis was finally brought to a hospital after spending 16 hours in detention. There, his situation was diagnosed as very serious. Jasinskis died a few hours later. The post mortem indicated that the cause of death was multiple injuries to the head and brain, including fractures to the skull and cerebral oedema.

Son of Aleksandrs Jasinskis