Communicated on 1 September 2015
THIRD SECTION
Application no. 68989/14
Constantin ROBU
against Romania
lodged on 27 November 2014
STATEMENT OF FACTS
The applicant, Mr Constantin Robu, is a Romanian national who was born in 1968 and is currently serving a prison sentence in Târgu Ocna Prison Hospital. He is represented before the Court by Ms E.T. Hatnean, his sister.
The facts of the case, as submitted by the applicant, may be summarised as follows.
On 6 August 2010 the applicant started serving a prison sentence of seven years and two months. At that time, he was suffering from hydrostatic varicose veins (varice hidrostatice) and obesity. In addition to those conditions, he developed during detention chronic bronchitis (bronşită cronică tabagică) caused by his tobacco use; secondary osteoarthritis more accentuated on the right side (coxartroză secundară bilaterală mai accentuată pe dreapta); type II diabetes; antisocial, paranoid personality disorder (tulburare de personalitate antisocială paranoidă); onychomycosis of the toenails (onicomicoză picioare); tinea pedis (a fungal infection of the soles of the feet and the interdigital spaces); presbyopia (long-sightedness caused by the loss of elasticity of the lens of the eye, which occurs typically in middle and old age); and lumbar spondylosis (spondiloză lombară). During his detention he was operated on for an inguinal hernia, varicose veins, and a deviation of the nasal septum. Those interventions aside, the applicant claims that the medical care and treatment in Târgu Ocna Prison Hospital is poor, the main reason advanced by the prison authorities being lack of funds. He also claims that the standard of dental care is poor, which has led to the loss of most of his teeth.
He describes as follows the conditions of detention: he shares 27‑28 sq. m cells with between eight and fourteen other inmates, the occupancy rate being most of the time fifteen inmates to a cell. They have access to one squat toilet. Warm water is available twice a week for one and a half hours, when all fifteen inmates are able to wash themselves and their underwear.
The cells have one window, which is often broken and does not close properly. For this reason, the air in the cells is – according to the applicant – too hot in summer and very cold in winter.
Clothes are never properly washed in the prison facilities and inmates have to dry them in their cells, giving rise to dampness and mould.
According to the applicant, prison food does not meet his health requirements (given his diabetes), but he cannot afford to buy everything he needs from the prison shop, whose goods he says are overpriced.
The applicant complained to the post-sentencing judge (judecătorul de supraveghere a privării de libertate) about the lack of adequate medical treatment and announced his intention to go on hunger strike by way of protest. On 29 September 2014 the post-sentencing judge attached to Botoșani Prison found in favour of the applicant and declared that by not allocating a sufficient budget to prisons, the Prison Administration had effectively prevented the applicant from benefiting from adequate medical treatment. According to the applicant, that decision has had no bearing on the conditions of his detention, which continue to be unsatisfactory.
COMPLAINT
Relying in substance on Article 3 of the Convention, the applicant complains of poor medical treatment in prison and about the bad conditions of detention.
QUESTION TO THE PARTIES
Were the conditions of the applicant’s detention and medical care and treatment in prison in breach of the requirements of Article 3 of the Convention?
The Government are invited to provide information on the material detention conditions of the applicant, in particular as regards the size and occupancy rate of the cells, cleanliness and facilities, and the food and medical care and treatment offered to the applicant in detention.
Full & Egal Universal Law Academy