Communicated on 22 September 2014
FOURTH SECTION
Application no. 24594/12
Jacek TARLECKI
against Poland
lodged on 17 April 2012
STATEMENT OF FACTS
The applicant, Mr Jacek Tarlecki, is a Polish national, who was born in 1968. He is currently serving his prison sentence in Siedlce Prison.
A. The circumstances of the case
The facts of the case, as submitted by the applicant, may be summarised as follows.
In June 2011 the applicant was found unconscious at the Berlin Airport with a serious injury to his skull and brain and was taken to the hospital. He subsequently underwent an extensive neurochirurgical operation dealing with cerebral brain haematoma, aneurism and some mechanical damage.
During the operation large front and right parts of his cranium were removed. After the operation he suffered from epilepsy and received various medications.
He remained in the hospital until 4 August 2011 and was subsequently transferred to Poland with a view to serving his prison sentence of an unspecified length.
Apparently on his admission to prison he was checked by a doctor from the Gdańsk Prison Hospital. He was later admitted to a prison hospital of the Gdańsk Detention Centre on 7 December 2011 and remained there until 28 February 2012. The doctors decided that the damage to his skull should be repaired by way of cranioplasty operation, in order to cover the exposed parts of the brain which were protected only by skin. It was further stated that the operation would be carried out under the schedule of planned operations. No date was referred to.
On 7 March 2012 the Gdańsk Regional Court, Penitentiary Division, refused the applicant’s application for temporary leave on health grounds.
On 23 April 2012 the Gdańsk Court of Appeal upheld the contested decision. It referred to a medical certificate of 27 March 2012 according to which the applicant could be treated in the prison setting and his condition did not pose an immediate danger to his life or limb. The court acknowledged that the applicant needed to be operated on as indicated by the doctors but that the operation was not urgent and would be carried out under the hospital schedule.
It transpires from the last letter of the applicant, dated 24 February 2014, that the operation has not been carried out, nor has a date been scheduled for it.
B. Relevant domestic law
The legal provisions concerning medical care in prison and detention of ill prisoners are set out in the Court’s judgment in the case of Sławomir Musiał v. Poland, no. 28300/06, §§ 48–61, 20 January 2009 and in paragraphs 30-37 of the judgment delivered by the Court on 20 September 2011 in the case of Mirosław Zieliński v. Poland, no. 3390/05.
COMPLAINT
The applicant complains without invoking any Article of the Convention that the medical care provided to him within the penitentiary system is inadequate; that he does not receive appropriate medication; that no operation has been carried out or scheduled and that he runs a permanent risk of brain damage in case of even the smallest injury to his head.
QUESTION tO THE PARTIES
Do the conditions in prisons where the applicant is serving his sentence amount to degrading or inhuman treatment in breach of Article 3 of the Convention, taking into account the applicant’s ailment and the fact that the operation recommended by doctors has not been carried out?
Full & Egal Universal Law Academy