ECHR to announce pilot decision against Romania on prison conditions

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) is expected to announce on Tuesday a pilot decision against Romania on detention conditions, governmental sources have told Hotnewes.ro. The Romanian authorities are expecting the court to make the ruling in the “Rezvimes and others vs. Romania” case. The court will not apply financial penalties to Romania but will ask the Government to come up with concrete measures to fix the overcrowding and poor detention conditions in local prisons, according to the same sources. In a similar decision ruled against the Hungarian state in 2015, the ECHR asked the Government to come up with measures in six months. Local politicians have repeatedly claimed that the ECHR would impose financial penalties on Romania due to the poor detention conditions estimated at around EUR 80 million per year. This figure was first mentioned by former justice minister Raluca Pruna, who referred to Italy’s example. Following a similar ECHR decision in 2013, Italy decided to pay EUR 8 per day to inmates, as compensation, among other measures to improve detention conditions. However, the Romanian authorities can come up with other measures, that don’t involve paying inmates. The current governing parties have been pushing a pardoning law that would free a few thousand inmates from local prisons. The initiative has led to street protests, as some people expect the politicians to use this measure and pardon former officials sent to prison for corruption in recent years. editor@romania-insider.com