Information Note on the Court’s case-law 56

September 2003

KadiÄ·is v. Latvia (no. 2) (dec.) - 62393/00

Decision 25.9.2003 [Section I]

Article 3

Inhuman treatment

Conditions of detention in a provisional isolation block of a local branch of the State police: admissible

Article 35

Article 35-1

Six-month period

Six month issue raised by the Court of its own motion

Difference between date of letter introducin g application and date of posting

In April 2000 the applicant was sentenced to fifteen days’ “administrative detention” for contempt of court, an offence under the Code of Administrative Offences. No appeal lay against that decision. The applicant lodged a n application to set aside and an application for annulment, which were dismissed. The applicant was held in the provisional isolation block of the Directorate of the State Police in Liepāja . He was placed in a cell measuring 6 sq. m., which regularly hous ed four of five prisoners. Owing to lack of space, the only furniture was a wooden platform serving as a common bed for the prisoners. No daylight entered the cell, which had continuous artificial lighting, was badly ventilated and had no sanitary fittings . The prisoners received one meal per day. The applicant states that he was not allowed outside throughout his detention. He began a hunger strike and states that he was obliged to end it when his health seriously deteriorated.

Admissible under Articles 3 and 13, following joinder to the merits of the objection of failure to exhaust all domestic remedies raised in respect of Article 3.

Inadmissible under Article 6 § 1 and Article 2 of Protocol no. 7: The respondent Government’s objection o f failure to comply with the six-month period in respect of Article 6 is upheld. First, as the remedies exercised by the applicant against the order establishing the administrative offence depend on the discretion of the authority seised, they are extraord inary procedural remedies which are not taken into account in the calculation of the six-month period. The final domestic decision for the purposes of Article 35 § 1 is therefore the order of April 2000. As Latvian law provides that such a decision is to b e served on the person convicted, the six-month period begins to run on the date on which the terms of the decision are actually communicated to the applicant. While it is true the applicant’s first letter  to the Court is dated one day before the expiry o f the six-month period, the letter was posted three days later and the Court considers that it is the date of posting indicated on the postmark that must be taken as the date on which the application was submitted. Although under Latvian law the relevant p eriod is automatically extended when it coincides with a holiday, the Court observes that the six-month period is to be calculated according to the criteria applicable to the Convention. The respondent Government have submitted no objection of inadmissibil ity in respect of Article 2 of Protocol no. 7. The Court reiterates that the rule on compliance with the six-month period is a matter of public policy and that it has jurisdiction to apply it of its own motion: the complaints are out of time.

Inadmissible under Article 5: The applicant’s detention under the order convicting him of an administrative offence is held to be consistent with paragraphs 1 and 4 of Article 5: manifestly ill-founded.

© Council of Europe/European Court of Human Rights This summary b y the Registry does not bind the Court.

Click here for the Case-Law Information Notes