Switzerland convicted of unlawful deprivation of liberty
Published: Tuesday, Feb 20th 2024, 12:40
Updated At: Tuesday, Feb 20th 2024, 12:40
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The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has found Switzerland guilty of three violations of the Convention in the case of a mentally ill offender. The man had been held in several prisons without adequate treatment despite having been ordered to undergo therapeutic measures.
On Tuesday, the Court concluded that the man's detention from July 2012 to the end of February 2016 in the Thorberg BE, Lenzburg AG and Bostadel ZG penal institutions without adequate therapeutic care constituted inhuman and degrading treatment within the meaning of Article 3 of the Convention.
The court also stated that the associated deprivation of liberty was not proper because it did not take place in a suitable facility. The right to liberty and security had therefore been violated. Furthermore, his request for release in 2014 had not been considered within a reasonable period of time.
Therapy denied
In 2010, the now 36-year-old Swiss national was sentenced to seven and a half months' imprisonment for simple assault, violence and threats against authorities and officers, as well as other offenses. He was also ordered to undergo outpatient treatment. After a short period of conditional release, he was imprisoned again because he had become violent again.
In December 2010, an expert diagnosed the complainant with a personality disorder with paranoid traits. The expert also assumed that he had consumed harmful amounts of alcohol and cannabis. He therefore recommended inpatient therapeutic measures.
This was ordered when the man was sentenced again at the beginning of 2011. The convicted man was taken to Thorberg Prison BE for execution, where he was initially housed in two security wards. This was followed by a good three months in the normal prison unit before he was transferred to the therapy unit in the summer. He was placed under arrest there twice for five days for disciplinary reasons.
After a further episode of violence and transfers to other prisons, a new expert opinion was finally commissioned. From September 2012, the man refused all contact with the forensic psychiatric service.
Compensation of 32,500 francs
The expert concluded that the prisoner suffered from a mixed personality disorder, was emotionally unstable, exhibited antisocial, paranoid and narcissistic traits and had a schizophrenic disorder.
Inpatient treatment should therefore be resumed in a clinic. This could not be done immediately due to a lack of suitable space. Further transfers to other prisons followed until the man was finally admitted to a clinic in February 2016.
The ECtHR found that the Swiss authorities had not remained inactive in finding a suitable place for therapy. Nevertheless, the mentally ill man had spent more than three and a half years between 2012 and 2016 in institutions that were unable to provide adequate medical care. As a result, no therapeutic measures were carried out to prepare the person concerned for possible release.
Switzerland must pay the complainant compensation of 32,500 euros and compensate him for the costs incurred in the amount of 8,000 euros. (Judgment 36609/16 of 20.2.2024)
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