Part I
tention facility of Military Police has to be issued a medical certificate confirming there are no medical counter-indications for being placed there. The
Regulation of the Minister of Defence of 10 September 2014 on detention
facilities121 provides for no differences in the treatment of persons deprived
of liberty in terms of medical examinations. Thus, the situation of detained
intoxicated persons suspected of committing an offence and not subject to
medical examinations seems even more unjustified.
The CHR has repeatedly pointed to the necessity to introduce compulsory medical examinations for all persons detained by police officers. This was
mentioned, among others. in the CHR’s general intervention of 15 February
2012 to the Commander-in-Chief of the Police122 and the earlier annual reports on the activities of the National Preventive Mechanism in Poland for
2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015123.
The issue was also addressed by the Commissioner in his correspondence
regarding the strategy adopted by the Ministry of the Interior and Administration (MIA)and the National Police Headquarters, referred to in the section Strategy against human rights violations by police officers. He recalled
many times the standard referred to in many judgments of the ECHR124 (e.g.
Dzwonkowski v. Poland, application no. 46702/99, judgment of 12 April
2007), according to which a person remaining under police supervision
should , at the end of the supervision, be in a condition not worse than at its
beginning. If the person, while leaving the police facility, has physical injuries
not existing before, the state has the duty to explain in what circumstances
they had occurred. In its judgments to be complied with by Poland, the Court
pointed out that one of the grounds for accepting the applicant’s arguments
was the inability of the Polish State to explain how the person’s physical injuries had occurred125.
A sudden deterioration of detainee’s health condition generates specific obligations on the side of public authorities. Consequently, if a person is arrested in good health at the time of his/her arrest and released in
a worse health condition, the state should explain how the bad condition
occurred126.
Dz. U. of 2014, itsm 1358.
Ref. no. RPO-687961-VII-720.8.1/11.
123
NPM’s annual reports are available on the NMP website under the tab Reports on the activities of
the NPM.
124
e.g. judgment of 12 April 2007 in the case Dzwonkowski v. Poland, application no. 46702/99.
125
CHR’s general intervention of 28.10.2015 to Commander-in-Chief the Police, ref. no. KMP.570.24.2015.
126
Judgment of 9 December 2008 in the case Dzieciak v. Poland, application no. 77766/01.
121
122
47
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