Brussels, 19/07/2012 (Agence Europe) - The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled on Thursday 19 July that France had “failed in its duty to show particular vigilance” after a detainee committed suicide by hanging himself in La Santé Prison, Paris, in 1999. The Court held that France was to pay the sisters of Kamel Ketreb jointly €40,000 in respect of non-pecuniary damage.
Ketreb, a polydrug addict, had no chronic mental disorder, and doctors diagnosed his psychological condition as “borderline”. He was remanded in custody in La Santé prison in June 1998 on a charge of armed assault, as a re-offender, against his partner. In prison, he twice attempted to commit suicide. After being sentenced to five years imprisonment in March 1999, he was sent to a disciplinary cell on 20 May after a series of incidents. He hanged himself four days later.
The ECHR found France to be in breach of the Articles on “the right to life” and “prohibition on inhuman or degrading treatment”. The Court “noted that the mention of the two suicide attempts by hanging in January 1999 when Kamel Ketreb was in the punishment block, his self-mutilation and his behaviour at the origin of the disciplinary measure should have alerted the authorities to his psychological vulnerability”. The Paris public prosecutor's office closed its preliminary investigation into the causes of the detainee's death. A judicial inquiry, opened after his two sisters lodged a complaint, ruled there was no case to answer. (LC/transl.rt)