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11. Groups of persons deprived of their liberty at the places of detention
woman with two adult women in the same cell caused a fundamentalrights-related anomaly.
The visiting delegation found two cells where the open regime was ensured
for the detainees so that the doors did not open directly to the corridor, but to
an area of about 0.75–1.0 square meter surrounded by bars.
“Open regime”
in the Somogy County Remand
Prison
Several detainees claimed
that, upon the visitors’ departure, in the chapel or in another room available they had
had to strip naked in the presence of the guards and other
inmates. The naked detainees
had to pull back the foreskin
over the head of their penis, then they had to squat. This procedure is aimed at
checking whether they had hidden any forbidden objects, including psychotropic substances, between their legs or in the private parts of their body.
The relevant legal regulations stipulate three levels of examining the convict’s clothes and body.206 The oral cavity may be inspected by a staff member
of the opposite sex of the penal institution as well. Body search and examin
ing the convict’s clothing may be conducted only by a person of the same
gender. Body cavities may be examined only by a physician. In the absence
of the legal definition of body cavities, it is unclear whether the provision for
body search or the provision for examining body cavities should be applied
during the inspection of the foreskin-covered part of the convicts’ penis
or while looking for forbidden objects between the convicts’ leg or in their
rectum. The practice established as a result of this unclear legal situation
jeopardizes the enforcement of the prohibition of degrading treatment, so
I requested the Minister of Justice to take the necessary measure to abolish it.
In connection with exercising the right to freedom of religion, the State has
to provide the preconditions for the realization of the freedom of religion, i.e.,
to ensure the protection of the values and life situations related to the freedom of religion.207 In the Institution, the chapel was the place designated for
the practice of religion, providing a venue for religious acts and services, and
providing the conditions for individual or collective practice of religion for the
206
207
See Section 145 of the Prison Act.
See Constitutional Court decision 6/2013 (III. 1.) AB.
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