CEDH · CASELAW;CLIN;ENG — 11 juillet 2006

.s3ABFC313 { font-size:10pt } .sEB86A30B { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:14pt; page-break-after:avoid } .sBB9EE52A { font-family:Arial } .sA241FE93 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:18pt; text-align:justify; page-break-after:avoid; border-bottom:0.75pt solid #000000; padding-bottom:1pt } .s2EF62ED2 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; font-size:12pt } .s4DDA3AA3 { font-family:Arial; font-weight:bold; font-style:italic } .s29100277 { font-family:Arial; font-weight:bold } .s32563E28 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt } .s8F2B0B1B { margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:12pt; page-break-after:avoid; font-size:12pt } .sA36B60A1 { font-family:Arial; font-style:italic } .s5F48796F { margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:justify } .s5CB9E8AB { margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:justify; border-bottom:1pt solid #000000; padding-bottom:1pt } .sDF790F1E { margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:center } .s7ED160F0 { text-decoration:none } .s3DC36BA9 { font-family:Arial; text-decoration:underline; color:#0069d6 } Information Note on the Court’s case-law No. 88 July-August 2006 Rivière v. France - 33834/03 Judgment 11.7.2006 [Section II] Article 3 Degrading treatment Inhuman treatment Continuing detention despite emergence of mental illness and suicidal tendencies: violation   Facts :   The applicant was detained in 1978 and was subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment for murder, with ineligibility for parole for fifteen years. Since mid‑1991, he has been eligible for day release and release on licence. In 2002 and 2004, his requests for release on licence were turned down on the grounds of his psychiatric problems and the lack of proper support facilities. A psychiatric certificate issued in August 2002 stated that the applicant was psychotic and had suicidal tendencies linked to his difficulty in coping with prison life, and requiring in-patient hospital treatment. In October 2003 three experts noted that the applicant had developed a psychiatric disorder while in prison and was now suffering from a chronic mental illness which, were it not for his history of serious crime, would call for psychiatric treatment rather than continued detention in prison; he displayed worrying tendencies such as a compulsion towards self-strangulation. The applicant was compulsorily admitted to hospital in August and November 2002 on the grounds of suicidal tendencies which made his continued detention dangerous. He received psychiatric and psychological counselling from October 2001 to September 2004 and in 2005. Law : Article 3 – The prison authorities had not remained passive and had made efforts to alleviate the applicant’s mental disorder from a medical point of view. However, the fact remained that, under domestic law, prisoners with mental disorders could not be held in an ordinary prison but were to be compulsorily admitted to hospital. A Recommendation of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe provided that prisoners suffering from serious mental disturbance should be admitted to hospital. The Court considered that prisoners with serious mental disorders and suicidal tendencies, even if these had not to date been acted upon, required special measures to ensure that they received humane treatment for their condition, regardless of the seriousness of the offence of which they had been convicted. In the instant case, the applicant’s continued detention without medical supervision appropriate to his current condition had entailed particularly acute hardship and caused him distress or adversity of an intensity exceeding the unavoidable level of suffering inherent in detention. Conclusion : violation (unanimously). Article 41 – EUR 5,000 for non-pecuniary damage.   © Council of Europe/European Court of Human Rights This summary by the Registry does not bind the Court. Click here for the Case-Law Information Notes