FIRST SECTION
Application no. 39354/13
Dragomir PAVLOVIĆ
against Croatia
lodged on 4 June 2013
STATEMENT OF FACTS
The applicant, Mr Dragomir Pavlović, is a Croatian national who was born in 1974. He is represented before the Court by Mr Z. Kostanjšek, a lawyer practising in Sisak.
The circumstances of the case
The facts of the case, as submitted by the applicant, may be summarised as follows.
On 25 August 2010 the applicant was remanded in Sisak Prison (Zatvor u Sisku) pending criminal proceedings against him in the Sisak County Court (Županijski sud u Sisku) on charges of murder.
He was placed in a cell measuring 4.1 x 2.5 m with four other inmates. The room was equipped with two bunk beds, a dining table, four chairs, a cupboard and another table. Each night the prison guards brought a mattress for the fifth prisoner, because the number of detainees exceeded the number of sleeping places in the room. In the morning they would take the mattress back and the person using it had to sit on a chair the entire day.
On 23 January 2013 the applicant complained to a sentence-execution judge of the Sisak County Court about the conditions of his detention.
On 13 May 2013 he urged the sentence-execution-judge to examine his complaints.
On 21 May 2013 the sentence-execution judge replied by letter, admitting that the conditions in Sisak Prison were not adequate but indicating that the situation could not be improved because of the general overcrowding in that prison.
COMPLAINT
The applicant complains under Article 3 of the Convention about the conditions of his detention in Sisak Prison.
QUESTIONS TO THE PARTIES
1. Do the conditions of the applicant’s detention, in view of the size of his cell, the number of inmates placed in the same cell at the material time, or any other condition, amount specifically or cumulatively to inhuman or degrading treatment in breach of Article 3 of the Convention (see Ananyev and Others v. Russia, nos. 42525/07 and 60800/08, 10 January 2012)?
In that regard, the Government are required to provide detailed information about the conditions in which the applicant has been detained, including information about the size of each of the cells occupied by the applicant and their state of repair, access to drinking water, access to toilet and washing facilities, access to natural light and fresh air, hygiene, food, clothing, heating, ventilation, outdoor activities, opportunity to work, and educational and leisure facilities.
The Government are required to submit all relevant materials concerning the applicant’s conviction and copies of all of the applicant’s submissions to any State authority about the conditions in Sisak Prison, as well as any replies received.
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