European Court condemns Portugal in yet another case for poor prison conditions

This Thursday, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ordered the Portuguese state to compensate the citizen Marques Angelo 8,300 euros for poor conditions in the Lisbon Prison (EPL).

The ECtHR also ordered the Portuguese state to pay 250 euros in legal costs and other expenses in the case in which, in addition to poor conditions of detention, Marques Angelo alleged that the prison lacked effective internal resources to protest the situation of his detention.

The Court found that the complaint revealed a violation of Article 13 of the Human Rights Convention in relation to the lack of an effective remedy for complaints of inadequate conditions of detention.

According to the ECHR ruling, “lack of fresh air, humidity, lack of or insufficient food, poor quality of food, mold or dirty cell, lack of privacy in showers, cell infestation by insects and rodents, lack of cleaning, overcrowding and insufficient temperature,” complaints filed by Marques Angelo , born in 1967, who was detained in the Premier League for more than 11 months between 2022 and 2023.

The ECtHR rejected the Portuguese government’s request to exclude Marques Angelo’s application from the list of cases to be analyzed by this court, based in Strasbourg, France, and set a three-month deadline for the Portuguese state to pay the compensation due.

Meanwhile, Vitor Carreto, Marques Angelo’s lawyer, told Lusa that the ECHR has also condemned the Portuguese state in a number of other cases before it for poor prison conditions amounting to thousands of euros, warning that “Portugal will be convicted more often” a time when the Premier League had been “meant to close for many years” but never materialized.

“There are no minimum conditions in Portuguese prisons,” said Vitor Carreto, adding that some inspections carried out in prisons by the ombudsman’s office have not solved the problem.

Vitor Carreto issued a statement saying that “Portuguese justice is poor” and that “Portugal does not respect international treaties and ignores the European Convention on Human Rights.”

“Portuguese judges easily arrest any citizen (…). The judge extends the prison every three months without seeing or hearing from him. A prisoner waits, sitting in an overcrowded cell, for two or four prisoners, with a toilet and sink without separation, locked for 18 or 22 hours, living with rats, bedbugs, cockroaches, mold and dampness on the walls, poor nutrition, lack of work and social reintegration “, the lawyer criticized.