FIRST SECTION
Application no. 5901/13
Vladimir POZAIĆ
against Croatia
lodged on 17 December 2012
STATEMENT OF FACTS
The applicant, Mr Vladimir Pozaić, is a Croatian national, who was born in 1977. He is represented before the Court by Mr Z. Vidović, a lawyer practising in Varaždin.
The circumstances of the case
The facts of the case, as submitted by the applicant, may be summarised as follows.
On 22 March 2010 the applicant started to serve his prison sentence in Bjelovar Prison (Zatvor u Bjelovaru).
In the period between 22 March and 4 August 2010 the applicant was placed in a room measuring 17, 13 square metres with seven other persons.
On 4 August 2010 he was transferred to another room of the same size where he was accommodated with four other persons. He stayed in this room until 10 August 2010.
In the period between 10 August and 3 September 2010 the applicant was placed in a room measuring 6, 24 square metres which he shared with one person.
On 3 September 2010 he was transferred to a room measuring 17, 13 square metres where he was placed with five other persons.
Each room had an open toilet which additionally reduced the floor space. Sanitary and hygiene conditions were also very poor; the applicant was not given sufficient freedom of movement or any other form of activities; meals were of a bad quality and insufficient; and he was not provided with an appropriate medical care.
On an unspecified date in 2010 the applicant complained to a sentence-execution judge of the Bjelovar County Court (Županijski sud u Bjelovaru, sudac izvršenja) about the conditions of his detention. The sentence-execution judge dismissed the applicant’s complaint on the grounds that the conditions of his detention had not been inadequate given the objective possibilities of Bjelovar Prison.
The applicant appealed against this decision to a three-judge panel of the Bjelovar County Court.
On 21 October 2010 a three-judge panel, examining the applicant’s appeal, considered that the requirement for minimum personal space should be complied with in principal and that in essence the applicant’s rights had not been breached. It provided no specific reasoning for such findings.
The applicant then lodged a constitutional complaint before the Constitutional Court (Ustavni sud Republike Hrvatske).
On 5 June 2012 the Constitutional Court dismissed the applicant’s constitutional complaint as manifestly ill-founded. The decision of the Constitutional Court was served on the applicant’s representative on 20 June 2012.
COMPLAINTS
The applicant complains, under Article 3 of the Convention, about the conditions of his detention in Bjelovar Prison.
He also complains, relying on Article 6 of the Convention, about the lack of an effective remedy in that respect.
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QUESTIONS TO THE PARTIES
1. Have 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 amounted 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 applicant’s dormitories 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.
2. Did the applicant have at his disposal an effective domestic remedy for his Article 3 of the Convention complaint concerning the conditions of his detention, as required by Article 13 of the Convention?
The Government are required to submit all relevant materials concerning the applicant’s conviction, copies of all of the applicant’s submissions to any State authority about the conditions in Bjelovar Prison, as well as replies in that connection.ITMarkQuestionEnd
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