Belgium to pay damages of EUR 10,000 to former Romanian prisoner

Belgium has to pay damages of EUR 10,000 to a former Romanian prisoner, according to a ruling of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). The Romanian complained of inhuman and degrading conditions at the facilities he was detained in. The Belgium state also has to pay an additional EUR 800 for legal costs and expenses. Marin Vasilescu, was detained in Belgium’s Antwerp and Merksplas Prisons, between 2011 and 2012. "The Court found, in particular, that Mr Vasilescu’s physical conditions of detention in those prisons had subjected him to hardship exceeding the unavoidable level of suffering inherent in detention and amounted to inhuman and degrading treatment,” reads a statement of ECHR. The court also recommended that Belgium “envisage adopting general measures in order to guarantee prisoners conditions of detention compatible with Article 3 of the Convention and also to provide them with a remedy capable of putting a stop to an alleged violation or permitting them to obtain an improvement in their conditions of detention”. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com