Ukraine, convicted by the ECHR

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) convicted Ukraine on Thursday for the forced hospitalization of a mental healthy man between 2012 and 2014, AFP reports.

The court, which guarantees the observance of the European Convention on Human Rights, condemned Kiev for violating the right to freedom and security, the prohibition of inhuman and degrading treatments and the right to judicial appeals.

Ukraine has to pay the applicant, Ghennadi Igorovici Spivak, 25,000 euros for damages.

Spivak, born in 1980, was arrested in December 2011 for attempted murder in a state of intoxication and in a state of ‘severe emotional suffering’.

A psychiatric control carried out after his arrest established that he did not suffer from any mental disorder, however, his obligatory hospitalization was ordered in a psychiatry hospital.

The man was not convicted because of his mental state at the time of events and did not appeal, believing that hospitalization will only take a few days.

In fact, he spent more than 22 months in a psychiatric hospital in Dnipro, the courts repeatedly confirm the extension of his hospitalization without hearing personal.

The applicant, who was forced to take medicines against his will, denounced the conditions of hospitalization. He was shaved at the hospitalization in the unit and, for two weeks, was closed with two other patients in a room less than seven square meters, with the prohibition to go to the bathroom without permission.

« These conditions must have caused Mr. Spivak a discomfort and severe suffering, » the court said.

Spivak was discharged at the end of October 2014, after another court hearing, which this time could participate.

Ukraine must also pay almost 3,000 euros representing costs.