ECtHR: 7 days of police detention without window and a proper toilet cost € 3 000, Kasperovicius, 54872/08

On 20/11/2012 the European Court of Human Rights awarded non-pecuniary damages of € 3 000 to Mr Aleksandras Kasperovicius who spent 7 days in Anyksciai Police Detention Facility (§§ 6, 7, 47), since the cell did not have a window, neither a toilet and a sink. During the day he had to knock the cell door to ask a police officer to let him to toilet, and in the night he had a bucket (§ 10).

The Lithuanian Government argued that 4 days over 7 he was alone in the cell (§ 32), the artificial light and the cell microclimate met the legislative requirements, and the police detention did not cause any adverse health effect (§ 33). However the judges pointed that these facts have no influence on the access to toilet and the absence of a window, which was also confirmed by the Lithuanian Ombudsman and the UN Committee for the Prevention of Trture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment (§§ 23, 42).