Boudraa v. Turkey (application no. 1009/16) [Articles 3 ECHR], 28 November 2017

Date: 
Tuesday, November 28, 2017

On 28 November 2017, the ECtHR ruled in case Boudraa v. Turkey (application no. 1009/16) which concerned the detention of an Algerian national at the Yalova police headquarters in Turkey. The applicant lived in Turkey between 2001 and 2003, when he met his wife with whom he had four children. In 2003 he was deported to Algeria, where he was imprisoned and subject to various forms of ill-treatment. With the advent of protest movements during the so-called “Arab Spring” in 2010, he was once again taken into police custody in Algeria and subjected to ill-treatment. He fled Algeria to Syria and, in August 2013, reached Turkey to meet his family. On November 2013, he was taken into police custody for not having a passport and was placed in detention. His applications for international protection were rejected.

The European Court of Human Rights found a violation of Article 3 ECHR due to the detention conditions faced by the applicant at the Yalova police headquarters. First, it found that the facility was designed to accommodate people for very short periods, but was not suited for longer periods such as the applicant’s (sixty-six days of detention). Secondly, it highlighted that the applicant was not provided with a proper bed or an individual sleeping place. Thirdly, he had no access to outdoor exercise, in contravention with the guidelines from the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT).



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Keywords: 
Detention
Inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
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