Information Note on the Court’s case-law No.
November 1996
Silva Rocha v. Portugal - 18165/91
Judgment 15.11.1996
Article 5
Article 5-4
Review of lawfulness of detention
Take proceedings
Detention in a psychiatric hospital for a minimum period of three years of person prosecuted for homicide and found not to be criminally responsible on account of his mental disturbance: no violation
[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.]
Detention in question covered both by sub-paragraph (a) of Article 5 § 1 and sub-paragraph (e) - the two situations envisaged by those provisions, which were not mutually exclusive, coexisted.
As regards minimum period of three years, the review required under Article 5 § 4 was incorporated in the detention decision - circumstances of the case justified applicant's removal from society for at least three years.
Right to bring proceedings within meaning of Article 5 § 4 took effect after that period - in that connection intervals between the decisions given in this case under procedure for judicial review of the lawfulness of the detention were not excessive.
Conclusion: no violation (six votes to three).
© Council of Europe/European Court of Human Rights
This summary by the Registry does not bind the Court.
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