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The Supreme Audit Office published the report on the provision of health care services to inmates. Its findings are, to a large extent, similar to the conclusions of the HFHR’s programme “Health Care in Polish Prisons”, which was being implemented by the Foundation for the last two years.

The HFHR has begun to observe the trial of 21 men charged with assaulting police officers and using force to obstruct their work. The incident allegedly happened in May 2010 on the 10th-Anniversary Stadium in Warsaw after the lethal shooting of Maxwell Itoya, a Nigerian citizen. The defendants come from Nigeria, Cameroon, Guatemala and India.

Four judges who had not been appointed to office in 2007 made another complaints to the Constitutional Tribunal. The complainants are represented by advocates Marcin Ciemiński, Clifford Chance and Agnieszka Wardak, Salans, and legal counsellor Patrick Radzimierski, Salans, all acting pro bono.

A court in Lidzbark Warmiński ordered prosecutors to continue the investigation in a case of men beaten by officers at a police station. The court instructed the prosecution to interview a new witness in the case.Krystian Jacyno and Kazimierz Wołkowski had been beaten while interrogated at the District Police Headquarters in Lidzbark Warmiński.

The HFHR requested Justice Minister Jarosław Gowin to name information or circumstances which allowed him to assess the evidence collected in the investigation of CIA secret prisons in Poland on the basis of which a decision on indicting former Head of Intelligence Agency Zbigniew Siemiątkowski was taken.

The ECtHR found that Poland violated the prohibition of inhuman and degrading treatment in respect of a disabled inmate. The Court proclaimed judgement in the case of D.G. v. Poland. The applicant was detained in 2001. He is paralysed and claims that he developed serious health problems in detention. Because of that it was absolutely necessary to provide him with adequate personal hygiene products and medical accessories such as a catheter, which, as the applicant argues, were given to him too rarely considering his needs.

Poland’s legislators continue to work on the draft new Foreigners Act. In November last year the HFHR presented its remarks to the bill. In late January 2013 the Ministry of Interior hosted a consensus conference to discuss the remarks made by NGOs.

The ECtHR decided to lift the secrecy in the proceedings pending in the case of al-Nashiri v. Poland. The case was communicated to the Polish Government in July 2012. The applicant claims that in years 2002-2003 he was tortured in a secret CIA prison in Poland.

Over the last two years, the HFHR has carried out the programme “Health Care in Polish Prisons – The Pursuit of Compliance with Human Rights Standards”. “After two years of our programme we are well aware of numerous systemic problems in the area of prison health care”, says Maria Ejchart, project coordinator. “