Won Cases

Application no. 53069/15 (communicated on 5 September 2018). Foreign national deprived of her liberty – police entering her home without authorisation in order to arrest her: violation of the right to respect for the home (Article 8). The complaint concerning the lack of effective access to a court to challenge the lawfulness of the detention (Article 5 § 4) was declared inadmissible as manifestly ill-founded. Just satisfaction awarded for non-pecuniary damage (Article 41).

Application no. 54962/18. Alien deprived of his liberty – unlawful detention and lack of effective access to a court: violation of the right to liberty and security (Article 5 § 1 (f) and Article 5 § 4). The judgment censures in particular the settled case-law of the Belgian Court of Cassation, known as the “devoid of purpose” (sans objet) case-law, in so far as it has the effect of depriving an alien held in detention under successive detention orders of an effective remedy before a court by which to challenge their lawfulness.

Application no. 82284/17. Repeated suicide attempts by a detainee suffering from mental disorders: violation of the prohibition of inhuman and degrading treatment (Article 3, substantive and procedural limbs). The Court held that Mr Jeanty had been subjected to distress or hardship of an intensity exceeding the unavoidable level of suffering inherent in detention, in particular on account of the lack of supervision and medical follow-up during his two periods of detention, combined with the imposition of a disciplinary sanction of three days in an isolation cell although he had made several suicide attempts.

Application no. 37795/13. Death of a detainee suffering from mental disorders after being restrained by means of a chokehold applied by a prison officer: violation of the right to life (Article 2).

Application no. 23380/09. Slaps administered by police officers in the course of questioning: violation of the prohibition of degrading treatment (Article 3, substantive and procedural limbs). The Court held that the slap inflicted on the applicants by police officers while they were under the officers’ control at the police station did not correspond to a use of physical force rendered strictly necessary by their conduct, and that it therefore diminished their dignity.

Application no. 26417/10. Extradition to Morocco of a person sentenced to six years’ imprisonment for participation in the activities of a terrorist organisation and for criminal conspiracy: violation of the prohibition of torture in the event of the extradition being enforced (Article 3, substantive limb).

Application no. 56028/10. Alien deprived of his liberty – lack of effective access to a court to challenge the lawfulness of his detention: violation of the right to liberty and security (Article 5 § 4).

Application no. 56005/10. Alien deprived of his liberty – lack of effective access to a court to challenge the lawfulness of his detention: violation of the right to liberty and security (Article 5 § 4). The Court held that detention with a view to removal lasting four months, without any final decision being obtained on the remedies that had been lodged, breaches the right to a speedy decision on the lawfulness of the detention.

Application no. 10486/10. Foreign national at an advanced stage of HIV infection, deprived of her liberty with a view to her removal: delay in determining the appropriate treatment (violation of Article 3, substantive limb); absence of any link between the detention and the aim pursued by her expulsion (violation of Article 5 § 1 (f)); absence of a careful and rigorous examination of her situation before concluding that there was no risk of ill-treatment on return to her country of origin (violation of Article 13 taken together with Article 3).

Application no. 15297/09. Detention in a closed centre of foreign minor children accompanied by their mother, who had lodged an asylum application at the border: violation of the prohibition of inhuman and degrading treatment (Article 3, substantive limb) and violation of the right to liberty and security (Article 5 § 1 (f)). The Court considered that, in arresting and detaining them at the border, the Belgian authorities had exposed the applicant children to feelings of anxiety and inferiority and had knowingly taken the risk of jeopardising their development.

Application no. 30696/09. Detention in Belgium of an asylum seeker with a view to his transfer to Greece under the Dublin II Regulation, followed by his removal to Greece. Violation, by both Belgium and Greece, of the prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment (Article 3) and of the right to an effective remedy (Article 13 taken together with Article 3).