The European Court of Human Rights intends to thoroughly examine the problem of applying pre-trial detention in Poland. The Court approached the government inquiring whether it is true that a “system of groundless excessive detention of individuals suspected of committing a crime” is commonly applied in Poland. This case is unprecedented, as until now the Strasbourg Court has never approached a state with an inquiry regarding the entirety of an issue. (04-JAN-08)  

Written by: Agnieszka Chmielecka/ HRH Warsaw
Source: www.wiadomosci.onet.pl, www.gazetaprawna.pl

Inter alia the Ministry of Justice will prepare a response to this inquiry. As Justice Minister Zbigniew Cwiakalski himself has admitted, for Poland the very ECHR inquiry is “cause for shame and evidence of the Court’s distinct annoyance”. The Ministry has already turned to Appeals Public Prosecutor´s Offices throughout the country with a request to submit statistics regarding suspects’ stay in detention. The deadline for submitting replies, including, as the European Court has requested, proposals for structural changes in this domain, has been set for the turn of March and April of 2008.    

Complaint by Mr. Jamrozy
The ECHR submitted the inquiry regarding the legal situation of individuals placed in pre-trial detention to Poland based on a complaint that was sent to Strasbourg in November 2007 by the former Chairman of PZU S.A. Wladyslaw Jamrozy. Just as several dozen other people, Mr. Jamrozy (who is currently at liberty) is complaining about pre-trial detention. He was placed there in 2002 after being arrested by the Central Investigation Bureau (CBS). As his attorney explained, Mr. Jamrozy was groundlessly detained for 2 years and three months. In accordance with the law, the maximal period of pre-trial detention is 12 months and can be extended only in extreme and exceptional situations to two years.         

How many trials
Adam Bodnar, the coordinator of the Precedential Cases Program at the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, believes that in Poland excessive detention of people can be considered as “recidivism”. Statistics prepared by the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights show that Poland loses around 3-4 such cases each week before the Court in Strasbourg. Each lost trial results in the necessity to pay damages to the individuals who won. The costs are born by the state treasury. – In given cases these are not high: around 3-5 thousand Euro per person, but the problem is that there are more and more of these cases, which gives the impression that all suspects in Poland are groundlessly placed in detention – explains Adam Bodnar.