ill-treatment not amounting to torture will render the trial against the victim
unfair irrespective of the seriousness of the offence allegedly committed, the
weight attached to the evidence and the opportunities which the victim had to
challenge its admission and use at his trial.”330
The European Regional System
2
2.2.5 Duty to train personnel and provide
procedural safeguards
Procedural safeguards regarding deprivation of liberty are guaranteed in Article 5 of the ECHR, which provides in part that every detention must be in
accordance with a procedure prescribed by law,331 that everyone who is arrested
must be informed promptly of the reasons for the arrest,332 that all arrestees
and detainees must be brought promptly before a judge,333 and that:
“Everyone who is deprived of his liberty by arrest or detention shall be entitled
to take proceedings by which the lawfulness of his detention shall be decided
speedily by a court and his release ordered if the detention is not lawful.”334
Article 6(2) of the ECHR further provides that everyone shall be considered
innocent until proven guilty, while the elements of a fair trial are laid out in
Article 6(3), which provides:
“Everyone charged with a criminal offence has the following minimum rights:
a. to be informed promptly, in a language which he understands and in detail,
of the nature and cause of the accusation against him;
b. to have adequate time and facilities for the preparation of his defence;
c. to defend himself in person or through legal assistance of his own choosing or,
if he has not sufficient means to pay for legal assistance, to be given it free when
the interests of justice so require;
d. to examine or have examined witnesses against him and to obtain the attendance and examination of witnesses on his behalf under the same conditions as
witnesses against him;
e. to have the free assistance of an interpreter if he cannot understand or speak
the language used in court.”
Ibid. §106.
Article 5(1) ECHR.
Article 5(2) ECHR.
333
Article 5(3) ECHR.
334
Article 5(4) ECHR.
330
331
332
70
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