The European Court of Human Rights has ruled the lack of necessary personal space afforded in cells to a deaf and mute prisoner amounted to inhuman and degrading treatment.
The applicant, Valters Ábele, is a Latvian national. He has been deaf and mute from birth. He has a poor knowledge of sign language and has been categorised as having a medium level of disability. Convicted of aggravated murder in May 2008 he was sentenced to 15 years and 6 months in prison.
From December 2011 to September 2016 Mr. Ábele served his sentence in Brasa Prison. For the duration of his detention there he was held in overcrowded dormitory-style, multi-occupancy cells. His disability resulted in him having great difficulty in communicating with other inmates and left him isolated, vulnerable and open to harassment. Furthermore he struggled to communicate with the prison authorities and was unable to avail of any educational or recreational facilities in the prison as they did not cater for people with disabilities like his. He was not afforded a hearing aid until 2016 and even then it did not work well.
For periods of Mr. Ábele’s detention the hardships he endured were exacerbated due to the restriction of his personal space. One such period lasted from January 2012 until February 2013 and resulted in his personal space being restricted to less than three square metres for over a year. In a second period spanning almost two years from February 2013 to February 2015 his personal space was limited to between 3.09 and 3.28 square metres.
Over the course of his detention Mr. Ábele lodged approximately 25 handwritten complaints with prison authorities seeking to be transferred to single or dual occupancy cells or to other prisons even requesting to be subjected to a stricter prison regime in order to be held in a cell with fewer inmates. On each occasion however his complaints were rejected by the authorities and it was not until 2016 following rehabilitation work that he was transferred to Jékabplis Prison where he was placed in a cell with only two other inmates, one of whom having a similar hearing impairment.
The court noted that it had found that where the authorities decide to place and keep a disabled person in continued detention, they should demonstrate special care in guaranteeing such conditions as corresponds to the special needs resulting from the disability. The ECtHR observed there was a strong presumption in its case-law of a violation of Article 3 (prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment) when personal space falls below three square metres and that the only factor capable of rebutting the presumption was where the period in question was “short, occasional and minor”. This evidently was not the case in Mr. Ábele’s situation. Regards the period of his detention which saw his personal space limited to just above the minimum standard the Court took into consideration the ramifications of his disability to his circumstances. Namely the harassment, isolation and sense of helplessness he endured as a result of his disability as well as the failure of authorities to make a working hearing aid available to Mr. Ábele or to attempt to overcome the obvious communication problems he had with prison staff. The Court concluded that the second period despite the of restricted personal space being over the standard minimum did amount to a violation of Article 3 as it resulted in Mr. Ábele experiencing anguish and feelings of inferiority attaining the threshold of inhuman and degrading treatment.
Click here for a copy of the judgement.
Click here for further commentary on the case.