RSS
ECHR chairman recommends Romania take similar measures for the prisons issue to those taken in Italy
The ECHR chairman Guido Raimondi stated in Strasbourg the number of trials reaching the Court from Romania doubled in the last year, many being provoked by detention conditions, and recommends legislative measures, such as the ones taken by Italy where there were reduced the sentences of some prisoners, and some others had their sentence turned in house arrest with surveillance bracelets.
In the statement on the occasion of a new judicial year of the European Court for Human Rights (ECHR), the chairman of the institution stated that the numberof cases in trial increased by 32% especially due to the situations in three countries: Hungary, Romania and Turkey.
‘As regards Hungary and Romania where the number of cases increased by 95% and 108% in 2016 they refer mainly to the detention conditions. There are priority cases as they are under the article 3 of the Convention (which forbids torture and inhuman sentences) but there are also repetitive cases which reflect systemic or structural issues and require solutions taken at national level’ Guido Raimondi says.
He says that there are ‘ no miraculous solutions’ as regards the issue of detention conditions, either at national level or at the level of the European Council under whose jurisdiction the ECHR works, but he shows that it needs political and budgetary measures.
‘This is possible, as the example of Italy says, for which the number of cases has halved in two years and a half. It is the result of the policies of the Italian government mainly as a response to the pilot decision in the Torreggiani case ( regarding detention conditions) which addressed the overcrowdyness in prisons as well as the duration of trials. This shows that where the government has the will to solve a situation and takes the necessary measures, the results appear soon’ the ECHR chairman says.
Guido Raimondi makes reference to a series of measures taken by Italy after the pilot decision of 2013 from the so-called decree’ Empty prisons’ through which the issue of detention conditions was partially solved. Thus, the anticipated release was instituted, decided by judges for almost 1,700 detainees, by the reduction of sentences with 75 days for every 6 months spent in prison in the case of prisoners with good behaviour, release on parol with a ceiling to 4 years of prison left as well as special parol for drug and alcohol addicts in case they spend their probation period in rehabilitation centres.
Moreover, Italy expanded the area of implementation of house arrest,for approximately 12,000 detainees, who had to cover at most one year and a half. Italy sent out of the country detainees of another citizenship asking the sentence be executed in the country of origin.