ECHR rules against Czech Republic in juvenile pre-trial detainee discrimination case News
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ECHR rules against Czech Republic in juvenile pre-trial detainee discrimination case

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled on Thursday that the Czech Republic discriminated against a juvenile defendant when it did not afford him the three-month pretrial detention review period granted to adults.

The case of Spišák v. the Czech Republic highlights differential treatment between juveniles and adults during pre-trial detention. The applicant was first detained at the age of 17 on suspicion of robbery and grievous bodily harm. The Prague Municipal Court rejected the applicant’s challenge against his detention based on his risk of re-offending under Article 67(c) of the Czech Code of Criminal Procedure (CCP).

The CCP also provides in Article 72 that every three months a periodic judicial review of pretrial detention must occur. This automatic review failed to happen in the case of the applicant because the district court applied a more specific rule (lex specialis) dictating that the maximum duration of the detention of a juvenile is set to six months. The applicant’s appeal against this  decision was later dismissed by the Czech Constitutional Court. As all domestic remedies had been exhausted, the case was brought to the ECHR.

The ECHR ruled in favor of the applicant on the grounds of Articles 5 and 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Article 5 deals with the right to liberty and security of the person while Article 14 protects individuals against discrimination on various grounds.

The court reasoned that pre-trial detention of minors should be used only as a measure of last resort and should be as short as possible. Because of this, the court established that a short period of judicial review should be the norm in the case of minors.

More importantly, the court found the interpretations Czech courts used in this case led to discrimination against the appellant. The ECHR had already recognized through relevant case law that age can be a factor covered by Article 14. It concluded in this case that the Czech Republic was discriminating against juveniles, as adults would enjoy greater benefits with a judicial review every three months as opposed to the six months minors are expected to wait. According to the ECHR, the Czech Government had failed to justify this difference in treatment between Mr Spišák and adult detainees, creating discrimination.

The court admitted the complaint and awarded compensation to the applicant. Under Article 46 of the European Convention on Human Rights, state parties are to abide by the final judgment of the ECHR, making the decision against the Czech Republic binding.

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