The applicant had, by court proceedings, established that he had under Polish law a right to release on licence after serving three-quarters of a determinate sentence. He complained that he had been unlawfully detained for 48 hours before being released, in violation of article 5.1.
Held: This claim succeeded. The court discussed the right to conditional release:
’31. As regards the characteristics of conditional release under Polish law as it stood at the material time, the court notes that the applicant had had a right to apply for conditional release after having served the statutory minimum term of his prison sentence. It is true that the granting of conditional release is left to the court’s discretion. However, once conditional release had been granted, the applicant had the right to be released without delay, as provided for in the Ordinance of the Minister of Justice of 27 August 1998 and on completion of the necessary formalities.
32. The Government argued that, despite the Court of Appeal’s final decision of 12 April 2000, the applicant’s continued detention until his release on 14 April 2000 remained justified under article 5 ss 1 (a) as constituting ‘the lawful detention of a person after conviction by a competent court’. The court does not accept that proposition. It is true that the Convention does not guarantee a right to have a penalty imposed by a court in criminal proceedings suspended for a probationary period (see X v Switzerland, no 7648/76, Commission decision of 6 December 1977, Decisions and Reports 11, p 190). However, in so far as the domestic law provided for such a right and once the conditional release had been granted, the applicant had a right to be released. Consequently, his continued detention following the final decision on his conditional release cannot be considered ‘lawful’ under article 5 ss 1 (a). That finding is not affected by the possibility of a revocation of conditional release in cases where a person has failed to comply with the relevant conditions or committed a new offence, provided that there is a sufficient connection between his conviction and a recall to prison (see Stafford v United Kingdom [GC], no 46295/99, ss 81, ECHR 2002-IV), (2002) 35 EHRR 32.’
Citations:
63131/00, [2007] ECHR 197, [2007] ECHR 543
Links:
Statutes:
European Convention on Human Rights
Jurisdiction:
Human Rights
Cited by:
Cited – Black, Regina (on the Application of) v Secretary of State for Justice HL 21-Jan-2009
The appellant complained that the system for considering the release of a life prisoner did not comply with the Convention when the decision was made by the Secretary of State and not by the Parole Board, or the court. The Board had recommended his . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Human Rights
Updated: 25 August 2022; Ref: scu.250433