The prisoner in Drenova confesses/ "They tied me up for 6 days with handcuffs and chains, I ate pieces of glass"

2023-10-29 15:11:00, Kronika CNA

The prisoner in Drenova confesses/ "They tied me up for 6 days with

The Albanian Committee of Helsinki has received a denunciation from a prisoner in the prison of Drenova.

The prisoner claims that an unfair measure was taken against him, as he was placed under special supervision for 3 months.

He stated that in the prison of Drenova they mistreated him, they tied him to the bed with handcuffs and chains for 6 days, and he was forced to eat pieces of glass.

KSHH commissioned a group of observers, including a doctor, to verify this complaint.

They have come to the conclusion that the citizen IJ was kept bound, while they emphasize that the decision taken against the prisoner is illegal.

" In the meeting that the monitoring group had with the convict I. J, he stated that he was kept in bed with chains and handcuffs for 4.6, 24 and 48 hours. The citizen claimed to the observers that out of desperation, worry and bad treatment, he ate pieces of glass. The IEVP staff allowed the team of observers to see in the column (the place where the police officers stand while performing the service) hanging on the wall, two fixed black handcuffs, which had a part that isolates the hand and an arm up to 25 centimeters , a chain and in an alcove, a black spacesuit, on which only the letters "...ICIA" remained, which appeared to be a police spacesuit. IJ claimed to the AHC observers that these were the means by which he was kept bound.

The doctor, the Director and the person in charge of education of the IEPP confirmed that the convict was chained, justifying it as a preventive measure so that he would not harm himself, but they denied that he was kept chained for 6 days. They did not have any document (Procedural) for this action. Even the doctor was not informed about this measure in advance, nor had he visited him, even when asked by the KSHH monitoring group he claimed that he had seen IJ tied to the bed.

Referring to the monitoring data, KSHH assesses that such extremely serious, undocumented, illegal acts that contradict the international standards cited in the following statement, create reasonable and well-founded suspicions that the handcuffing and chaining of this the citizen, in his mental health condition and for a long time, has caused IJ to undergo treatment with inhumane and degrading elements in the isolation facilities of IEVP Drenova.

In Kucheruk v. Ukraine, the Strasbourg Court found a violation of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (prohibition of torture) against a detainee suffering from chronic schizophrenia who complained, inter alia, that he had been kept in handcuffs in isolation. The ECtHR stated that there had been a violation of Article 3 (prohibition of torture) of the European Convention (ECHR), finding in particular that handcuffing a mentally ill citizen for a period of seven days without a justified psychiatric opinion and medical care, was to be considered inhumane and degrading treatment. Moreover, the very isolation and handcuffing of the applicant highlighted that the local authorities had not provided him with adequate medical treatment and assistance ," the statement said, among other things. / CNA