Portugal will have to pay almost 70 thousand euros in five cases brought to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) related to poor conditions of detention and the slow delivery of justice, the decisions of which were announced this Thursday.
Among the five decisions, two even led to convictions by the Portuguese state. In the remaining three applications, the government accepted the legitimacy of the complaints and provided an opportunity to pay the amounts demanded by the applicants by asking the ECtHR to stop these proceedings, which was confirmed by the court in Strasbourg (despite the objection of the interested parties).
The total amount of compensation and procedural costs for the two judgments is 17,800 euros (2,550 euros for the first case, 15,250 euros for the second), while the total value of the remaining three cases is 51,900 euros, which amounts to 69,700 euros payable Portugal.
In the first sentence, the foreign national complained about poor conditions in the Caxias prison, where he was held from October 2020 to February 2021 in a cell with four people.
The applicant alleges a violation of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which provides that “no one shall be subjected to torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”, as well as Article 13, which provides for an effective determination before the national authorities in the event of violations of rights.
He cited, among other things, inadequate temperature, overcrowding, lack of privacy in the toilet, poor quality of food, lack of necessary medical care, frequent outbreaks of violence, sharing cells with prisoners infected with infectious diseases, lack of separation between smoking and non-smoking prisoners, and also the lack or inadequacy of measures to prevent and control the Covid-19 pandemic.
In the second sentence, the Portuguese national filed a complaint for a period of almost one year and nine months (from May 2020 to February 2022), during which he was detained in the Lisbon Prison Establishment (EPL), sharing a cell with another prisoner.
He complained of overcrowding, insect and rat infestations, a moldy or dirty cell, poor quality of food, lack of fresh air and limited or no access to hot water, among other things, alleging violations of the same ECHR articles. .
In the other three cases, the State acknowledged the “inadequate conditions of detention” in the POZ referred to in the Portuguese citizen’s complaint, agreeing to pay €17,000 in compensation and €250 in procedural costs.
The same situation occurred in a joint complaint by two foreign citizens held in an unidentified prison, to each of whom the country will pay 6,800 euros (plus 250 euros for legal costs).
In the latest ECtHR decision, published this Thursday, “the government recognized the excessive length of the civil proceedings” in the case involving the Portuguese company, offering compensation of 20,300 euros in addition to 250 euros in costs to close the case.