The European Court of Human Rights has found Greece guilty of violating the right to freedom and security, as well as Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights that prohibits “inhuman or degrading treatment”.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled that Greece violated the human rights of two immigrants, one of them a minor and the other a woman, in two separate rulings this week.

The ECHR ruled against Greece in the case of Albanian national Albano Barjamaj who was arrested in April 2011 for entering the country illegally and not possessing a valid residence permit.

Barjamaj, a minor at the time, was remanded in custody for three days pending a decision on his deportation. The plaintiff complained that he was never notified of the decision to place him in detention and was only notified of the second decision three days after it had been taken, depriving him of the possibility of challenging its lawfulness.

The court found that Greece had violated the plaintiff’s right to freedom and security and obliged the country to pay a compensation of 2,000 euros for non-material damage.

In the case of Georgian national Ketevan Chkhartishvili, the court held that Greece had violated Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights that prohibits “inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment” and ordered the Greek government to pay 8,000 euros for material and non-material damage.

After entering Greece with a three-month residence permit, Chkhartishvili was remanded in custody pending a decision on her deportation. The plaintiff repeatedly challenged her detention and applied to have the decision to expel her overturned, but Greek courts rejected her requests. She was finally released in April 2010 and given ten days to leave the country.

The court found that the conditions of Chkhartishvili’s detention were in breach of European law.

Source: Enet English.