Information Note on the Court’s case-law No.
November 1996
Bizzotto v. Greece - 22126/93
Judgment 15.11.1996
Article 5
Article 5-1
Lawful arrest or detention
Article 5-1-a
After conviction
[This summary is extracted from the Court’s official reports (Series A or Reports of Judgments and Decisions). Its formatting and structure may therefore differ from the Case-Law Information Note summaries.]
I.GOVERNMENT'S PRELIMINARY OBJECTIONS
A.Failure to exhaust domestic remedies
Action to challenge manner in which sentence to be enforced would have been bound to fail as no prison with medical facilities existed in Greece at the material time.
B.Failure to comply with the six-month time-limit
Situation complained of by applicant had begun when he was sentenced and had continued until his release - application had been made to the Commission during that period.
Conclusion: objections dismissed (unanimously).
II.ARTICLE 5 § 1 OF THE CONVENTION
Applicant's "detention" the consequence of his conviction as a drug trafficker - sentence passed for purposes of punishment - finding that applicant was a drug addict and decision to have him placed in a prison with medical facilities did not in any way affect main ground for his "detention" - only sub-paragraph (a) of Article 5 § 1 applied in the present case.
Statutory provisions relied on by applicant had been inoperative at the material time - they laid down merely the arrangements for implementing sentences and could not have any bearing on "lawfulness" of deprivation of applicant's liberty.
Conclusion: no violation (unanimously).
© Council of Europe/European Court of Human Rights
This summary by the Registry does not bind the Court.
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