CoE raps Greece over detention conditions
European justice ministers yesterday urged Greece to speed up improvements to detention conditions in the country’s police stations and prisons, during a Council of Europe meeting in Finland. Greece was found guilty of having violated the European Convention on Human Rights on two separate occasions in 2001 because of «degrading conditions of detention.» At the time, the European Court of Human Rights had ordered the government to improve its facilities, citing overcrowding and poor sanitary conditions in particular. The ministers deemed yesterday that Greece had made insufficient progress, and called on the government to intensify efforts to build new prisons and detention centers, while improving holding conditions. They agreed to give Greece until October next year, at the latest, to respond to the Council’s demands.
