Prisoners' rights
All Updates
Cases selected for updating the Case-Law Guide.
Eldar Hasanov v. Azerbaijan, no. 12058/21
Inadequate medical treatment provided to a former Prosecutor General and former Ambassador for his illnesses while in detention during the period between his arrest and his first transfer to a prison medical facility.
Judgment
Medvid v. Ukraine, no. 7453/23
Clear and realistic prospect of reducibility of life sentences after – but not before – new release on parole mechanism became fully operational.
Judgment | Legal Summary
Namık Yüksel v. Türkiye, no. 28791/10
Restrictions imposed on applicant’s contact with four-year-old son staying with his wife in the same prison.
Judgment | Legal Summary
Sahraoui and Others v. France, no. 35402/20
Death in prison of a drug-addicted prisoner as a result of intoxication by prescribed and non-prescribed drugs.
Judgment | Legal Summary
W.W. v. Poland, no. 31842/20
Refusal to allow transgender person to continue prescribed hormone therapy after transfer in new prison.
Judgment | Legal Summary
Spišák v. the Czech Republic, no. 13968/22
Longer period of automatic judicial review of pre-trial detention for minors than for adults prosecuted for the same category of offence.
Judgment
D v. Latvia, no. 76680/17
Segregation, restricted access to basic prison resources and denial of human contact of a prisoner by fellow inmates due to subordinate position in informal prisoner hierarchy.
Judgment | Legal Summary
İlerde and Others v. Türkiye, nos. 35614/19 and 10 others
Exclusion of outdoor yards attached to cells in the calculation of prisoners' personal living space.
Judgment
Schmidt and Šmigol v. Estonia, nos. 3501/20 and 2 others
Consecutive enforcement of disciplinary punishments and security measures in prison resulting in protracted periods of solitary confinement.
Judgment | Legal Summary
Vukušić v. Croatia, no. 37522/16
Prolonged placement of a prisoner, without clothing, in a specially secured padded cell and with lights continuously on.
Judgment
Stott v. the United Kingdom, no. 26104/19
Difference in treatment in early release eligibility between prisoners serving an extended determinate prison sentence vis-à-vis standard determinate sentence prisoners and discretionary life sentence prisoners.
Judgment
El-Asmar v. Denmark, no. 27753/19
Use of pepper spray against a prisoner in an observation cell without prior warning.
Judgment | Legal Summary
Osman and Altay v. Türkiye, nos. 23782/20 and 40731/20
Withholding by prison authorities of issues of a periodical sent to prisoners by post without going through administration as required by law.
Judgment | Legal Summary
S.P. and Others v. Russia, nos 36463/11 and 10 others
Segregation, humiliation and abuse of prisoners by fellow inmates on account of inferior status in informal prisoner hierarchy tolerated by prison staff.
Judgment | Legal Summary
Deltuva v. Lithuania, no. 38144/20
Restriction on family visits with wife and daughter during pre-trial detention.
Judgment | Legal Summary
Machina v. the Republic of Moldova, no. 69086/14
Alleged infection in prison with a transmissible disease.
Judgment | Legal Summary
Yakovlyev v. Ukraine, no. 42010/18
Force-feeding of prisoner on hunger strike in protest against prison treatment.
Judgment | Legal Summary
Kalda v. Estonia (no. 2), no. 14581/20
Blanket ban on prisoners’ voting.
Judgment | Legal Summary
Subaşı and Others v. Türkiye, nos. 3468/20 and 18 others
Prisoners denied permission to receive visits from their school-age children and to make telephone calls at the weekends.
Judgment | Legal Summary
Kupinskyy v. Ukraine, no. 5084/18
Conversion, upon prisoner’s transfer, of a foreign reducible life sentence into an irreducible one due to unavailability of parole for life prisoners in his home State. Applicability and merits.
Judgment | Legal Summary
Constantin-Lucian Spînu v. Romania, no. 29443/20
Denial of permission for prisoner to attend religious services outside prison during Covid-19 pandemic.
Judgment | Legal Summary
P.C. v. Ireland, no. 26922/19
Convicted prisoner statutorily disqualified from old-age pension payments while incarcerated. Applicability and merits.
Judgment | Legal Summary
Chocholáč v. Slovakia, no. 81292/17
General and indiscriminate ban on prisoner possession of pornographic material.
Judgment | Legal Summary
Abdullah Yalçın v. Turkey (No. 2), no. 34417/10
Refusal to allocate room in high-security prison to Muslim prisoner for congregational Friday prayers. Applicability and merits.
Judgment | Legal Summary
Volodya Avetisyan v. Armenia, no. 39087/15
Domestic remedies for complaints as to inadequate conditions of detention.
Judgment | Legal Summary
Maslák v. Slovakia (no. 2), no. 38321/17
Placement of detainee in high security unit and decision-making process.
Judgment
Laniauskas v. Lithuania, no. 48309/19
Continued detention of visually impaired convicted prisoner.
Judgment
Nuh Uzun and Others v. Turkey, nos. 49341/18 and 13 others
The uploading of prisoners’ correspondence to a judicial IT server.
Judgment
Vool and Toomik v. Estonia, nos. 7613/18 and 12222/18
Impossibility of remand prisoners to receive conjugal visits.
Judgment
Zayidov v. Azerbaijan (no. 2), no. 5386/10
Confiscation and destruction of a book manuscript written by a journalist in detention.
Judgment
Cosovan v. the Republic of Moldova, no. 13472/18
Detention extended despite terminal condition.
Judgment
Normantowicz v. Poland, no. 65196/16
Special-needs prisoner's medical care and length of the examination of his request for a licence for prison leave on health grounds.
Judgment
Fenech v. Malta, no. 19090/20
Conditions of detention amid Covid-19 pandemic. Solitary confinement on medical grounds.
Judgment | Legal Summary
Shirkhanyan v. Armenia, no. 54547/16
Detainee not allowed to have private meetings with his representatives before the Court for a prolonged period of time. Alleged technical issue concerning Rule 39: Hinder the exercise.
Judgment
Sy v. Italy, no. 11791/20
Detention in an ordinary prison of a person suffering from psychiatric disorders, despite the domestic court order for his transfer to an appropriate institution.
Judgment | Legal Summary
Ivan Karpenko v. Ukraine, no. 45397/13
Life prisoner’s ban on communication with other prisoners during out-of-cell activities.
Judgment
Yakut Republican Trade-Union Federation v. Russia, no. 29582/09
Applicability: working prisoners and the right to join and form trade unions.
Judgment | Legal Summary
Mironescu v. Romania, no. 17504/18
Voting rights of detainees serving prison sentence outside the electoral constituency of their place of residence.
Judgment | Legal Summary
Mehmet Çiftci v. Turkey, no. 53208/19
Prison administration’s refusal to pass on newspapers posted to the detainee.
Judgment
W.A. v. Switzerland, no. 38958/16
Additional preventive detention after having served final conviction in ordinary prison of a mentally ill serious offender.
Judgment | Legal Summary
Bancsók and László Magyar v. Hungary (No. 2), nos. 52374/15 and 53364/15
Life prisoners eligible for release after having served forty years of their term.
Judgment
Danilevich v. Russia, no. 31469/08
Ban on telephone calls with family for life prisoners under strict regime.
Judgment | Legal Summary
Polgar v. Romania, no. 39412/19
Conditions of detention/transport and effectiveness of new domestic remedies.
Judgment | Legal Summary
Norman v. the United Kingdom, no. 41387/17
Prosecution of prison officer for providing information about prison to journalist in exchange for money.
Judgment | Legal Summary
Lesław Wójcik v. Poland, no. 66424/09
Refusal of convicted prisoner’s requests for unsupervised conjugal visits.
Judgment
Sándor Varga and Others v. Hungary, no. 39734/15
Whole life sentence subject to mandatory pardon procedure after forty years of imprisonment.
Judgment
Falzarano v. Italy (dec.), no. 73357/14
Secret surveillance of the visitation area in prison.
Decision
Ünsal and Timtik v. Turkey (dec.), no. 36331/20
Hunger strike in prison during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Decision
Lapshin v. Azerbaijan, no. 13527/18
Alleged strangulation attempt/suicide attempt in prison. Applicability and merits.
Judgment