The difficulty of accessing toilets by prisoners is a degrading treatment
JUDGMENT
Danilczuk v. Cyprus 03.04.2018 (no. 21318/12)
SUMMARY
Detention in overcrowded prisons without basic hygiene conditions. There was no toilet in the cells, and when the cells were locked, he used a toilet bag as a toilet. Violation for degrading treatment
PROVISION
Article 3
PRINCIPAL FACTS
The applicant, Robert Tadeusz Danilczuk, is a Polish national who was born in 1965 and is currently detained in Czarne Prison in Poland.
The case concerned his complaint about inadequate conditions of detention at Nicosia Central Prisons. In January 2011 Mr Danilczuk was convicted of a number of offences in Cyprus, including burglary, theft, road traffic offences and unlawful residence. He was given sentences ranging from six months’ to two years’ imprisonment to run concurrently. He spent the entire period of his detention from September 2010, when he was placed in detention on remand, to May 2012, when he was released under a presidential decree, in three different blocks in the prisons.
Relying on Article 3 (prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment) of the European Convention on Human Rights, Mr Danilczuk complained of overcrowding, lack of adequate light, cold cells and poor hygiene.
In connection to the latter he complained in particular of difficulties in accessing the toilets (there had been no toilets in the cells) and that when the cells had been locked, he had been forced to urinate in a bottle and defecate in a waste bag.
THE DECISION OF THE COURT
Violation of Article 3 (degrading treatment)
Just satisfaction: Mr Danilczuk did not submit a claim for just satisfaction(echrcaselaw.com editing).
