issued by the Registrar of the Court

ECHR 210 (2011)

25.10.2011.

A Greek prisoner subjected to inhuman and degrading

conditions of detention

In today’s Chamber judgment in the case of Ibram v. Greece (application

no. 39606/09), which is not final¹, the European Court of Human Rights held,

unanimously, that there had been:

A violation of Article 3 (prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment) of the

European Convention on Human Rights

The case concerned a Greek national who complained of the conditions of detention in

the facilities of the Thessaloniki police headquarters

Principal facts

The applicant, Argyrios Ibram, is a Greek national who was born in 1972 and lives in

Choristi Drama (Greece). Having been prosecuted for possession of narcotics and

causing grievous bodily harm in 2003, he was arrested by the police in 2009, placed in

pre-trial detention and transferred to the Thessaloniki police headquarters.

According to Mr Ibram, the conditions of detention in those facilities were appalling. In

particular, the detention area did not have sufficient fresh air or sunlight. The air was

dank and there was an obnoxious small. As there was no inner courtyard, there was no

space for walks and so he could not leave his cell. The toilets and showers were

unhygienic. The prison service did not provide catering for inmates and they each had

only 5.87 euros per day to order meals, which were delivered to them from outside – a

sum that was insufficient to cover their daily food needs. However, Mr Ibram confirmed

that, shortly after his arrival, from April 2009 onwards, the catering system had changed

and inmates had been able to eat in the police canteen, but at lunch and dinner times

only, thus depriving them of breakfast. Lastly, Mr Ibram complained that he had been

isolated from the outside world because newspapers were banned and there was no

television.

In March 2009 Mr. Ibram requested that the pre-trial detention measure be replaced by

another measure. The indictments chamber rejected his application on the ground that

he represented a flight risk. Later, Mr Ibram informed the prosecutor at the Thessaloniki

Criminal Court and the Greek Ombudsman of the conditions of his detention and asked

that they be improved. In June 2009 Mr Ibram was transferred to Thessaloniki Judicial

Prison.

1 Under Articles 43 and 44 of the Convention, this Chamber judgment is not final. During the three-month

period following its delivery, any party may request that the case be referred to the Grand Chamber of the

Court. If such a request is made, a panel of five judges considers whether the case deserves further

examination. In that event, the Grand Chamber will hear the case and deliver a final judgment. If the referral

request is refused, the Chamber judgment will become final on that day.

Once a judgment becomes final, it is transmitted to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe for

supervision of its execution. Further information about the execution process can be found here:

www.coe.int/t/dghl/monitoring/execution

Complaints, procedure and composition of the Court

Relying on Article 3 of the Convention, the applicant complained that the conditions of

his detention in the facilities of Thessaloniki police headquarters had constituted

inhuman and degrading treatment.

The application was lodged with the European Court of Human Rights on 25 June 2009.

Judgment was given by a Chamber of seven, composed as follows:

Nina Vajić (Croatia), PRESIDENT,

Elisabeth Steiner (Austria),

Khanlar Hajiyev (Azerbaijan),

Mirjana Lazarova Trajkovska (the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia),

Julia Laffranque (Estonia),

Linos-Alexandre Sicilianos (Greece),

Erik Møse (Norway), JUDGES,

and also Søren Nielsen, SECTION REGISTRAR.

Decision of the Court

Article 3

The Court reiterated that measures depriving a person of his liberty inevitably involved

an element of suffering or humiliation and that the State had an obligation to ensure

that all prisoners were detained in conditions compatible with respect for their human

dignity, that the manner in which they were detained did not subject them to excessive

distress or hardship and that their health and well-being were adequately secured.

The Court observed that the conditions of detention in the facilities of the Thessaloniki

police headquarters had already been the subject of judgments in which the Court had

found a violation of Article 3 of the Convention.

The Court noted that the truth of Mr Ibram’s allegations concerning the conditions of his

detention was not disputed. It recalled that these allegations were moreover,

corroborated by the reports of the Greek Ombudsman, who had previously, in May 2007,

paid a visit to the Thessaloniki police headquarters for the transfer of detainees, in order

to examine, among other things, the conditions of detention.

The Court observed that Mr Ibram had been held for more than four months in facilities

designed to hold prisoners for short periods and which were not suitable for prolonged

periods of imprisonment. During the first two months of his detention, there had also

been a problem with catering. Although the detainee catering system had improved

slightly since Mr Ibram’s arrival, the fact remained that the other problems, namely, the

lack of cleanliness of the cells, the lack of an exercise space and the lack of any kind of

distraction, had continued.

The Court noted that the conditions, in which Mr Ibram had been held in those facilities,

together with the duration of his detention, four months and five days, amounted to

inhuman and degrading treatment in breach of Article 3.

Article 41

The Court ordered Greece to pay the applicant 7,000 euros (EUR) in respect of non-

pecuniary damage and rejected the claim for costs and expenses.

The judgment is available only in French.

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The European Court of Human Rights was set up in Strasbourg by the Council of

Europe Member States in 1959 to deal with alleged violations of the 1950 European

Convention on Human Rights.