CAT/OP/CHE/ROSP/1
Deprivation of liberty as a result of therapeutic measures may last for a maximum period of
five years, which is renewable.51
149. In accordance with article 64 of the Criminal Code, a judge may order the preventive
incarceration of persons who have committed certain offences specified in law, including
premeditated murder, murder, rape and hostage-taking, if it is feared that they may commit
further such offences on account of their personality traits or because of a chronic or recurrent
severe mental disorder to which their offence is linked, and if the measures provided for in
article 59 of the Criminal Code seem doomed to fail.
150.
Such incarceration is ordered for an indefinite period.
151. The measures enumerated in articles 59 and 64 of the Criminal Code may be imposed
on offenders who are deemed not criminally responsible, as well as those deemed to have
full responsibility.
152. Persons who have committed certain serious offences listed in article 64 (1) bis of the
Criminal Code may be placed in lifelong detention if it is highly likely that they will commit
another such offence and they are assessed as permanently untreatable.
153. The likelihood of reoffending is assessed on the basis of a psychiatric evaluation to
predict future dangerousness.
154. Provision is made for a periodic review of the grounds for indefinite detention, during
which a psychiatric evaluation is conducted to determine whether there has been any change
in the detainee’s personality traits or the danger he or she poses since the previous review
and if it remains necessary to protect the public from him or her. While indefinite detention
is reviewed every two years, 52 then every year, no re-evaluation of lifelong detention is
provided for, the lifting of that measure being envisaged only in the event of new scientific
knowledge becoming available, as set out in article 123a (2) of the Federal Constitution.
155. With regard to article 64 (1) bis of the Criminal Code specifically, the
Subcommittee:
(a)
Recalls that, for a life sentence to remain compatible with article 3 of the
European Convention on Human Rights and article 9 of the International Covenant on
Civil and Political Rights, there must be both a real prospect of release and a possibility
of thorough review;53
(b)
Expresses serious doubts as to the feasibility of establishing a medical
prognosis of lifelong untreatability and permanent psychiatric, criminal and social
dangerousness. Predictions about a convicted person’s future behaviour are, by their
very nature, uncertain, with a significant risk of error. Deprivation of liberty for life on
such flimsy grounds could raise serious issues of lawfulness. 54
51
52
53
54
20
Le Sous-Comité a été frappé de l’absence de statistiques exhaustives et désagrégées, indicatives du
nombre de mesures thérapeutiques prononcées au niveau national, de sorte à pouvoir en apprécier
l’évolution et la tendance en amont, ainsi qu’à rectifier et à prévenir les dysfonctionnements au
besoin. Il a toutefois été rapporté par de nombreux observateurs, ce que confirme la littérature
scientifique, que le nombre de mesures thérapeutiques institutionnelles prononcées est en
augmentation constante, et que le nombre de places de traitement en institution spécialisée ne permet
pas de répondre à une telle augmentation. Le nombre de personnes placées dans un établissement
pénitentiaire après avoir été condamnées à une mesure thérapeutique institutionnelle serait ainsi passé
de 186 en 2007 à 449 en 2014.
La décision est potentiellement convertie en mesure thérapeutique au titre de l’article 59 du Code
pénal.
Voir Cour européenne des droits de l’homme, Vinter et autres c. Royaume-Uni [GC], nos 66069/09 et
2 autres, CEDH 2013 (extraits).
Il convient de relever que l’internement à vie n’a été prononcé que quatre fois, et annulé trois fois par
décision du Tribunal fédéral ; l’annulation tenant à l���absence d’indication explicite de l’incurabilité
dans les expertises pénales. Le quatrième cas n’a pas été examiné par la juridiction de recours, le
condamné n’ayant pas fait appel.
GE.21-03779
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