Report of the Commissioner for Human Rights on the activities of the National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture in Poland in 2017
A juvenile said that he was hit and seated on a chair. He was handcuffed. When he was
placed in an armoured cabinet, police officers started hitting it with truncheons. He was
also being hit with a truncheon on his heels and at the moment of detention they sprayed
gas into his face. He was not examined by a doctor following his detention. He first saw his
ex-officio lawyer during the court hearing.
Another one revealed that he was taken to one of the police rooms. He was seated on a chair
with his hands cuffed at the back. The boy remained handcuffed for the whole period of the
interrogation. Officers wanted to know the origin of the drugs and who sells them. He was
being hit with an open hand and punched with a fist all over his body. After some time, the
door opened and he could see his teary cousin in the opposite room.
The minor explained that he was beaten by police officers upon detention and also later at
the police station. He said that he was punched on his neck, he was kicked and flung to the
ground and handcuffed. The handcuffs were on all the time until he was transported to the
juvenile shelter.
Another juvenile was interrogated at 1 o’clock at night in relation to the escape of some
centre residents. The interrogation took place in a monitored visit room but none of the establishment’s employees was present. The boy claimed that the officers were threatening him
that he would be considered an accomplice. He mentioned that the officers made malicious
comments addressed at him.
A juvenile reported that he was detained on a staircase and then transported to the 5th police station in Katowice. This is where officers (policeman and policewoman) tried to force
him to give false evidence. As he claimed, he received two blows with a truncheon and his
legs were cuffed to a radiator (in the interrogation room). A lawyer was absent, so were any
third parties. As the juvenile stated, the officers “had a crime, but there was no culprit”, so
they tried to make him admit guilt. They were screaming at him.
All reported cases are now used by the NMPT to examine irregularities with respect to interrogating juveniles by police officers.
The Commissioner for Human Rights addressed an intervention to the Voivodeship Commander-in-Chief of the Police in Wrocław and to the Prosecutor’s Office in Wrocław94 in
relation to the interrogation of a juvenile with mild intellectual disability by an officer of the
police station in Jelenia Góra. In the opinion of the Commissioner, the method of bringing
the juvenile to interrogation was in breach of the provision of the Code of Criminal Procedu94
Cf. KMP.573.21.2016
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