A disabled detainee's transportation difficulties

A disabled detainee's transportation difficulties
AJB-6462/2010.

Under the supervision of the guards, a detainee with wheel-chair was forced and pushed into a police van. The reason why this disabled person was not willing to enter the van proprio was the lack of seat-belt in the transporting vehicle. The Parliamentary Commissioner for Civil Rights has noticed the violation of fundamental rights and human dignity of disabled persons.

The complainant criticized the security equipments of the transport: namely, his hands were put in handcuff and there was an absence of safety bell in the vehicle, by which he would have been able to hold himself securely during the transportation. Recognizing the default of transport circumstances, he refused (in a form of passive resistance) to enter the van. He put his shirt off and denied to move his wheelchair. According to the detainee's words, following the instruction of the guards, other detainees put him into the vehicle by force and he was transported half-naked on the metal floor of the van. After the arrival, he was grabbed out from the police wagon by force again. Later, a medical report was taken on his injuries.

Based on the complaint, the deputy-Head of the Hungarian Prison Service requested the examination of the case, but no violation of human dignity was found as a conclusion. Contradicting the official report, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Civil Rights found that the prisoner did not want to avoid his transportation, but he protested against its way and method. Furthermore, it is not acceptable to use the physical force of other detainees against their companion by the police guards.

Avoiding similar cases in the future, the Ombudsman has proposed the Hungarian Prison Service to use safety bell in the case of transporting people with physical disabilities. Furthermore, detainees must not be used to break other prisoner's reluctance and the use of constraint measures is unacceptable.

The above-mentioned complainer also reclaimed his categorization of "high-severity prisoner" based on "additional information" of which he got no information at all, moreover he could not even look at the concerning documents. After examining the case, the Ombudsman stated that non- informing  has violated the rights for fair procedure.  Since the abuse of the constitutional right can be traced back to the legislation,  Prof. Máté Szabó proposed the Minister of Public Administration and Justice to revise the regulation of security categorization particularly regarding to the detainees' right for information.