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Wednesday, March 8, 2000
Detention conditions, despite improvements, draw ire of foreigners and Europe By Magnus Bennett "Several Czechs came into the station after me," the 39-year-old student from North Africa said, "but I was told I was a foreigner and would have to wait until they were finished. Then I was told I would have to wait for a translator, and it was nearly five hours before one arrived." In the meantime, police didn't want him leaving the building. Little wonder the incident left Saleh bewildered and depressed. Saleh's case raises a critical question: If victimized foreigners are unimpressed with their police treatment, what's in store for lawbreakers? According to a Justice Ministry spokesman, foreigners held in custody "are treated exactly the same way as Czechs." Fair and humane treatment, he stressed, is the rule. There are signs that Czech authorities, scalded by Council of Europe criticism, are trying to improve detention facilities. Published last spring, a report by the Council's Committee Against Torture (CPT) labeled conditions for foreigners awaiting extradition "completely unacceptable." The report, based on an official visit to 11 Czech police institutions and prisons in February 1997, highlighted the police detention facility on Kongresova street, where foreigners were held in cells without access to natural light. "They [the detained] spent the whole day locked in their cells with nothing to occupy their time, a situation which could -- and did -- last for up to 30 days," the committee stated. New detention centers In response, the Czech government announced a radical facelift. Cells have been replaced by a new detention center in Balkova, north of Plzen (Pilsen), which handles 250 foreigners daily. A second center is planned for Postorna in Moravia. "Conditions at Balkova are much more fit for human beings," Czech Police spokeswoman Ivana Zelenakova said. "Foreigners can go out for walks, and there is a library, television, a room for children and basic medical help." But for some, Czech facilities don't meet European Union (EU) standards. Mads Gustafsson will not soon forget the summer night last year when, drunk and disoriented, he entered the wrong apartment and fell asleep on a couch. Within minutes, he was under arrest. "I was put in a very small police cell where I couldn't even stretch my legs," the 28-year-old Swedish student said. "I was kept there for 10 hours. It was freezing, and there was no window in the cell. I was not offered any food or water." According to Gustafsson, police also ignored requests for a lawyer and a translator. "They kept bringing me pieces of paper to sign, but my Czech was not good then, so I had no idea what I was signing. I refused to sign anything until the afternoon, when I just wanted to get out and go home." Police say that internal checks have found no cases of bullying, torture "or other undignified treatment of foreigners," and that the Justice Ministry would handle any complaints. But Gustafsson's account matches criticisms outlined by the EU in its regular pre-entry report on the Czech Republic published last October. It stated: "Conditions in a considerable number of police detention facilities are not acceptable. Persons deprived of their liberty by the police are frequently unable to notify a third person of their situation and can remain in police custody for many hours without being given access to a lawyer." Englishman Chris Denning, 58, currently on trial in Prague on charges of sexually abusing underage boys, wrote to the European Court of Human Rights alleging mistreatment during his arrest and subsequent imprisonment. He described his Prague arrest along with several other foreign nationals in November 1997 as "brutal" and alleged that he was kept for several months in solitary confinement in Prague's Pankrac prison "for no reason." Gustafsson's experience, meanwhile, has left an indelible impression. "I am afraid of the police here now," he said. "They clearly thought it was okay to carry out these abuses against me." Magnus Bennett's e-mail address is mbennett@praguepost.cz Waiting for an out At the end of 1999, a total of 1,656 foreigners were in custody in the Czech Republic. During that year, 7,491 foreigners were prosecuted and 1,309 foreign nationals were sentenced to jail terms. The largest group of foreigners in custody were Ukrainian; police charged 598 in 1999. Slovaks ranked second, with 263 charged last year. Sources: Czech Justice Ministry and Czech Prison Service |
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