Torture by Police, Forced Disappearance & Other Ill Treatment In the early years of the 21st Century, 2000 to
2025 gvnet.com/torture/Romania.htm
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CAUTION: The following links have
been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in Romania. 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 *** Council of Europe
anti-torture committee publishes report on Romania, highlighting that the
challenges facing the prison system remain extensive European Committee
for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment CPT, 14 April 2022 [accessed 14 April
2022] Moreover, the CPT’s
report states that continued overcrowding in the prisons remains a serious
problem, impacting not only on living conditions but also on the provision of
activities, health care and violence. Two of the establishments visited,
Craiova and Mărgineni Prisons, were operating
above 150% of their capacity, offering many persons only 2m˛ of living space
each in their cells. In addition, the material conditions in all the prisons
visited were generally poor, with cells dilapidated and lacking furnishings,
and mattresses and bedding worn out and infested with bed bugs. The majority of
persons met by the CPT’s delegation indicated that they had been treated
correctly by staff. Nevertheless, a considerable number of allegations of
physical ill-treatment of prisoners by prison staff were received, including
by members of the masked intervention groups. This was notably the case at
Giurgiu Prison, where credible allegations of several persons having been
repeatedly subjected to blows to the soles of their feet were received: a torture
method known as falaka. The CPT again raises
serious concerns over the lack of recording of and reporting on injuries by
the health care service and failures to investigate allegations of
ill-treatment in prison effectively. 2020 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices: Romania 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/romania/
[accessed 5 August
2021] TORTURE AND OTHER
CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT The constitution
and law prohibit such practices, but there were reports from nongovernmental
organizations (NGOs) and media that police and gendarmes mistreated and abused
Roma, primarily with excessive force, including beatings. On April 23, media
circulated a video showing the chief of police in the town of Bolintin Vale in Giurgiu County beating several Romani persons
immobilized in handcuffs on the ground and verbally abusing them for speaking
in the Romani language. In 2019 prosecutors
in Bucharest Sector 5 opened a case against 15 employees and the director of
the Rahova Penitentiary Hospital for allegedly beating
several inmates between 2015 and 2018 and falsifying medical records to cover
up the abuses. The NGO CRISS
stated that in 44 cases of police brutality against Roma over the previous 13
years, there were no convictions at the national level, often because
prosecutors did not take the cases to court. The European Court of Human
Rights (ECHR) ruled in several cases that the justice system had failed to
deliver a just outcome in cases of police brutality, particularly against
Roma and cases involving abuses in psychiatric hospitals. The average time
for a ruling in cases of alleged police abuse of Roma was nearly four years.
In March the ECHR issued a ruling on a case involving the 2005 shooting of a
15-year-old Romani girl at close range by a police officer at a train depot
in Chitila. As a result of the shooting, the victim
suffered severe wounds and required surgery to remove part of her liver. The
ECHR noted that authorities failed to ensure that physical evidence linked to
the incident was gathered and preserved. Technical and medical expert reports
were not produced until several years later, preventing the investigating
authorities from making conclusive findings. Both the Prosecutor attached to
the High Court of Cassation and Justice and a Bucharest district court
dismissed the victim’s complaint in 2014 and 2015. According to the ECHR,
authorities did not make genuine efforts to establish the events of the 2005
police operation. Council of Europe
anti-torture committee raises concerns over abuse of prisoners by staff,
inter-prisoner violence and allegations of police ill-treatment Council of Europe
2019 News, 19 March 2019 [accessed 17 May
2019] As regards law
enforcement, the report notes that the majority of persons interviewed by the
CPT’s delegation stated that they had been treated correctly by police
officers. Nevertheless, a number of allegations of physical ill-treatment
(many of which corroborated by medical evidence) by police officers were
received from detained persons. The allegations consisted primarily of slaps,
punches, kicks and baton blows inflicted by police officers against criminal
suspects either at the time of the arrest or during questioning at a police
station, apparently for the primary purpose of coercing a confession. The CPT
also comments on the investigation into allegations of police ill-treatment
and recommends that prosecutors strictly apply the criteria of effectiveness. The CPT again criticises the holding of criminal suspects and remand
prisoners in police arrest detention centres for up
to two months or more, where they are exposed to a greater risk of
intimidation and pressure. These concerns are accentuated by the poor
material conditions, inadequate health care and impoverished regime for
persons held in arrest detention centres.
Therefore, the CPT urges the Romanian authorities to consider converting
arrest detention centres into proper pre-trial
detention facilities and placing them under the authority of the Ministry of
Justice and the National Prison Administration. Freedom House
Country Report 2018 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/romania/freedom-world/2018 [accessed 13 May
2020] IS THERE PROTECTION
FROM THE ILLEGITIMATE USE OF PHYSICAL FORCE AND FREEDOM FROM WAR AND
INSURGENCIES?
- Romania is free from war and insurgencies. Conditions in prisons, however,
are harsh. In April, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) sanctioned
Romania for poor prison conditions, and ordered it to take immediate measures
to improve the conditions of inmates and come up with a timetable for
resolving the problems within six months. In response, the government in
October passed legislation reducing the sentences of some prisoners; under
it, about 530 inmates were initially released early and some 3,500 more
became eligible for release the next month. Civil society groups and others
expressed concern that the release of inmates as a measure to reduce
overcrowding in the prisons was not a proper response to the ECHR’s
criticisms, and warned that the measure could be used to grant parole to
officials convicted for corruption. Abuse of detainees
by police remains a problem. Amnesty
International Report 2002 - Romania Amnesty
International AI, 28 May 2002 www.refworld.org/docid/3cf4bc124.html [accessed 13 January
2019] Police
ill-treatment, sometimes amounting to torture, was widespread. There were
numerous reports of police shootings in disputed circumstances. Provisions in
the Penal Code criminalizing homosexuality were abolished, but a long-delayed
comprehensive reform of the Penal Code and of the laws concerning the police
force was again postponed. Conscientious objectors to military service were
threatened with imprisonment. TORTURE AND
ILL-TREATMENT
-- The number of reported incidents of police ill-treatment, in certain cases
amounting to torture, increased. Some of the police officers involved had not
been disciplined following earlier complaints of ill-treatment. At least two people
died in custody, reportedly as a result of torture or ill-treatment. A
criminal investigation into one death in custody was initiated almost four
months after the event, after public protests and repeated appeals from NGOs.
The lack of adequate medical treatment in police lock-ups apparently
contributed to the death in February of a man who was reportedly suffering
from drug dependency. One reported victim of police torture, a 20-year-old
man, committed suicide in January on the eve of a second interrogation. In July Dumitru Grigoras, a 35-year-old
father of four children, was arrested by two police officers, following a
complaint that he had been violent to his wife. A man living opposite the
police station alleged that later that evening he heard screams from the
police station and one of the officers shouting, "Tell me! By morning I
will have killed you anyway". Early the next morning the body of Dumitru Grigoras was taken to a
local doctor's surgery. Police claimed that he had become ill while making a
statement. Two days later Dumitru Grigoras's wife and father were allowed to see the body.
They refused to take the body for burial because it was covered in bruises
and other injuries and demanded a second autopsy. In October it was reported
that two police officers were detained pending an investigation into Dumitru Grigoras's death; the
result of the investigation was not known at the end of the year. In March,
14-year-old Vasile Danut Moise was taken to the local police station in Vladesti for questioning by two police officers and a
farmer whose cow had allegedly been stolen. Vasile Danut Moise later described how
the police officers beat him on the palms of his hands and on the back with a
"shepherd's staff" (a wooden rod about one metre
long) and with a truncheon. A third officer hit him on the head with a
lever-arch file, making him fall against a stove. That evening Vasile Danut Moise was taken to a paediatric
hospital suffering from psychological trauma and injuries to his head, eye and back. AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL From an old article -- URL not available Article was
published sometime prior to 2015 EXCESSIVE USE OF
FORCE
- Incidents of violence between demonstrators and the police during the anti-government
protests in January gave rise to allegations of excessive use of force by
police officers. Media reports and video footage showed police using
excessive force against seemingly peaceful demonstrators who were not
offering any resistance. The NGO APADOR-Helsinki Committee documented several
cases of abuses by the police during the demonstrations. It concluded that
some of the law enforcement officers’ actions had been arbitrary and
disproportionate. In February, the Ministry of Administration and Interior
stated that four criminal complaints relating to the behaviour
of police officers during the demonstrations were being investigated. No
charges had been brought by the end of the year. Search … AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL For more
articles:: Search Amnesty
International’s website www.amnesty.org/en/search/?q=romania+torture&ref=&year=&lang=en&adv=1&sort=relevance [accessed 13 January 2019] Scroll
Down ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61670.htm [accessed 11
February 2013] 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61670.htm [accessed 5 July
2019] TORTURE
AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT – The law
prohibits such practices; however, there were numerous credible reports of
police torture and mistreatment of detainees and Roma, primarily through
excessive force and beatings by police. In October a
student from Bucharest, Razvan Vasile
Muraru, stated that he had been beaten by three
police officers in Tulcea county after allegedly
having been taken without grounds to the police station. Muraru
filed a complaint with the prosecutor's office, and police initiated an
internal investigation which remained open at year's end. In December two
police officers in Tibana in Iasi county allegedly
beat four minors with clubs and forced them to admit to committing an alleged
theft. Two of the minors had to be hospitalized for their injuries. The
officers were dismissed and remained under criminal investigation at year's
end. 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-
Romania", http://gvnet.com/torture/Romania.htm, [accessed <date>] |
