ECHR rules Poland violated fair trial rights by increasing sentence of prisoner on parole News
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ECHR rules Poland violated fair trial rights by increasing sentence of prisoner on parole

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled on Thursday that Poland violated the right to a fair trial enshrined in Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights by quashing and modifying the sentence of a prisoner who had already served the majority of his sentence.

The applicant, Łukasz Zakrzewski, contended that the Polish government violated his right to a fair trial by reopening his criminal proceedings with the sole aim of increasing the penalty originally imposed.

The court agreed with the applicant, affirming that Article 6 of the Convention prohibits the authorities from reopening criminal proceedings because a judge may come to a different conclusion. The court further elaborated that the reopening of criminal proceedings can only be justified if it is necessary to “correct a fundamental defect or miscarriage of justice” or to “rectify an error of fundamental importance to the judicial system.”

Accordingly, the court found that the failure of Poland’s Supreme Court to assess whether any fundamental defects in Zakrzewski‘s proceeding required correction amounts to a violation of Zakrzewski‘s right to a fair trial. ECHR further stated that the Supreme Court failed to assess the effect of the re-examination of the case on Zakrzewski, who has already served more than half of his sentence and was released on parole.

In 2017, the Polish domestic court convicted Zakrzewski of unlawful possession of a large amount of narcotics and jailed him for two years even though the minimum statutory imprisonment is three years’ imprisonment. The trial court refused to impose the minimum sentence, believing that it would be disproportionate because of the applicant’s lack of criminal record and lack of attempt to distribute the drugs. The appellate court affirmed the reasoning but imposed an additional punitive damages of EUR $220. Zakrzewski started serving his sentence in February 2018.

The Polish prosecutor general appealed his sentence at the Supreme Court, arguing that the sentence was “flagrantly too lenient” in March 2018. However, the Głubczyce Prison governor released Zakrzewski on parole with the approval of the Opole Regional Court in February 2019. Despite being released on parole, the cassation appeal hearing began in March 2019. Zakrzewski‘s sentence was increased to three years in May 2019 since the local court believed that the general circumstances cited in the previous ruling were insufficient for extraordinary mitigation.

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