Torture by Police, Forced Disappearance & Other Ill Treatment In the early years of the 21st Century, 2000 to
2025 gvnet.com/torture/Lithuania.htm
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CAUTION: The following links
have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in Lithuania. Some of these links may lead to websites that
present allegations that are unsubstantiated or even false. No attempt
has been made to validate their authenticity or to verify their content. HOW TO USE THIS WEBPAGE Students If you are looking
for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on
this page and others to see which aspects of Torture by Authorities are of
particular interest to you. You might
be interested in exploring the moral justification for inflicting pain or
inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment in order to obtain critical
information that may save countless lives, or to elicit a confession for a
criminal act, or to punish someone to teach him a lesson outside of the
courtroom. Perhaps your paper might
focus on some of the methods of torture, like fear, extreme temperatures,
starvation, thirst, sleep deprivation, suffocation, or immersion in freezing
water. On the other hand, you might
choose to write about the people acting in an official capacity who
perpetrate such cruelty. There is a
lot to the subject of Torture by Authorities.
Scan other countries as well as this one. Draw comparisons between activity in
adjacent countries and/or regions.
Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources
that are available on-line. ***
ARCHIVES *** 2020 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices: Lithuania U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, 30 March 2021 www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/lithuania/
[accessed 27 July
2021] TORTURE AND OTHER
CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT The constitution
and law prohibit such practices. In its report published in June 2019, the
Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) stated it
had heard allegations of excessive force exerted by prison staff at the
Alytus, Marijampole, and Pravieniskes
Prisons in subduing interprisoner violence. ARREST PROCEDURES
AND TREATMENT OF DETAINEES The CPT received a
number of allegations of deliberate physical mistreatment and excessive use
of force by prison staff at the Alytus, Marijampole,
and Pravieniskes prisons. The CPT assessed that
medical evidence corroborated the reports of physical abuse. The CPT also
noted that prison staff used excessive force including punches, kicks, and
truncheon blows to de-escalate violence among prisoners. The CPT reported
“truly extraordinary levels of interprisoner
violence, intimidation, and exploitation” in these prisons. It also reported
that inmates seeking protection from fellow prisoners had to spend months
(usually six months) if not years in small and often dilapidated cells, and
were subjected to severe limitations (no activities, no association, no
long-term visits), that amounted to de facto solitary confinement. Council of Europe
anti-torture Committee publishes report on Lithuania Executive Summary,
25 June 2019 [accessed 1 June
2020] Furthermore, as had
been the case during previous visits, in Alytus, Marijampolė
and Pravieniškės Prisons the delegation observed
truly extraordinary levels
of inter-prisoner
violence, intimidation and exploitation. It
gave the delegation
a strong impression
that the main
detention areas in
these three prisons were
unsafe for inmates,
and that the
only parts of
the establishments under
full control of the
administration were the
punishment blocks which
were frequently used
and constantly filled to
capacity, mostly by
inmates seeking protection
from other prisoners
and being punished for refusing
to stay in their ordinary units. Freedom House
Country Report 2018 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/lithuania/freedom-world/2018 [accessed 13 May
2020] F1. IS THERE AN
INDEPENDENT JUDICIARY?
- Businesspeople and politicians closely linked with business exert pressure
on the judiciary, and according to the most recent results of an EU survey,
only about half of the general public and representatives of the business
sector believe that judicial independence is guaranteed. Nontransparent
decisions by the courts also remain an issue. -- SCORE CHANGE: The score
declined from 4 to 3 due to influence by business groups and politicians on
judicial decisions, and a lack of transparency surrounding some judgements. F2. DOES DUE PROCESS
PREVAIL IN CIVIL AND CRIMINAL MATTERS? - Defendants generally enjoy the
presumption of innocence and freedom from arbitrary arrest and detention, but
detained suspects are not always granted timely access to an attorney. Their
rights to fair and impartial trial and other processes are also not always
respected. F3. IS THERE
PROTECTION FROM THE ILLEGITIMATE USE OF PHYSICAL FORCE AND FREEDOM FROM WAR
AND INSURGENCIES?
- Police abuse of detainees and lengthy pretrial detentions are lingering
issues. Separately, despite some progress in recent years, Lithuania still
has one of the highest homicide rates in the EU. Conclusions and
recommendations of the Committee against Torture U.N. Convention
against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment -- Doc. CAT/C/LTU/CO/2
(2009) www1.umn.edu/humanrts/cat/observations/lithuania2009.html [accessed 3 March
2013] Pre-trial detention 11. The Committee notes the changes that have
occurred in the legal regulation of the operation of police detention
facilities, including the approval in May 2007 of the Rules of Procedure of the
Detention Facilities of Territorial Police Establishments and the Manual for
Security and Maintenance of Detention Facilities of Territorial Police
Establishments. The Committee also takes note of the Law on the Execution of
Detention which will enter into force on 1 April 2009, which stipulates the
conditions for keeping detainees in pre-trial wards and sets forth a clear
and direct prohibition to subject a person to torture or cruel or degrading
treatment upon the execution of detention.
However, the Committee remains concerned at reports of prolonged
pre-trial detention and administrative detention of both minors and adults
and the high risk of ill-treatment which it entails, and regrets the lack of
use of alternatives to imprisonment (arts. 2, 11 and 16). The State party
should take appropriate measures to further reduce the duration of detention
in custody and detention before charges are brought, and develop and
implement alternatives to deprivation of liberty, including probation,
mediation, community service or suspended sentences. Search … AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL For more
articles:: Search Amnesty
International’s website www.amnesty.org/en/search/?q=lithuania+torture&ref=&year=&lang=en&adv=1&sort=relevance [accessed 6 January 2019] Scroll
Down ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** CPT publishes
report on Lithuania Council of Europe
2018 News, 1 February 2018 www.coe.int/en/web/cpt/-/cpt-publishes-report-on-lithuania [accessed 16 May
2019] The CPT also
regrets to note the extent of inter-prisoner violence at Alytus and Marijampolė Prisons and concludes that the situation
in this respect had become even worse as compared with previous CPT’s visits
to these establishments. As previously, several major factors could be seen
as contributing to the phenomenon of inter-prisoner violence: accommodation
in cramped large-capacity dormitories, the existence of an informal prisoner
hierarchy, the abundance of illicit drugs and smuggled mobile telephones and,
last but not least, the low number of custodial staff, insufficient to ensure
the safety of prisoners. The CPT’s
delegation received a number of allegations of deliberate physical
ill-treatment and of excessive use of force by prison staff at Alytus and Marijampolė Prisons. In these two establishments,
the delegation also heard (as during previous visits) allegations of physical
ill-treatment by members of special intervention units (both those belonging
to the Prison Department and those run by the Public Security Service of the
Ministry of the Interior) in the context of large-scale cell searches. Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61660.htm [accessed 4 February
2013] 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61660.htm [accessed 4 July
2019] TORTURE
AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT – The law
prohibits inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; however, at times
police beat or otherwise physically mistreated detainees, although such
incidents continued to decline. The law does not specifically prohibit
torture; however, it could be considered an aggravating factor in the
commission of other crimes. From January to
June, the Ombudsman's Office received isolated complaints that officials used
force to obtain evidence in pretrial investigations. The ombudsman
investigated a complaint alleging the transfer of a diabetic suspect, in
custody during pretrial investigation, to a facility unable to meet her
medical needs. Considering the transfer a form of psychological pressure to
coerce testimony, the ombudsman ordered the suspect's release and requested
the police commissioner general to investigate the case and take measures to
prevent such recurrences. Prosecutors initiated a pretrial investigation but
closed it for lack of evidence. In February local
media reported a complaint that Alytus police bound and beat a suspect in
custody. A police investigation failed to confirm that the officers involved
had committed a crime, and the authorities did not indict them. All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
for noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT
ARTICLES. Cite this
webpage as: Patt, Prof. Martin, "Torture by Police, Forced Disappearance
& Other Ill Treatment in the early years of the 21st Century-
Lithuania", http://gvnet.com/torture/Lithuania.htm, [accessed
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