Strasbourg concerned over unwarranted use of remand in custody

The European Court of Human Rights is concerned at how Ukrainian courts determine whether a person needs to be remanded in custody. This was the message from the government’s Representative on European Court Matters, Valeria Lutkovska at a press conference on Friday.

She pointed out that a judgment had been passed which has not yet become final in the case of Kharchenko v. Ukraine. “In the near future, I think, it will be in great demand, including among journalists”.

The judgment, she explained, is about the fact that Ukraine has a systemic problem with the European Court of Human Rights extremely concerned about remand in custody.

She stressed that this was not remand in custody per se, or even the conditions, but how the need for remanding a person in custody was determined, why specifically that measures, as well as how the courts decide whether such remand should be extended and on what grounds.

The European Court of Human Rights recently awarded Kyiv resident Leonid Kharchenko 20 thousand Euros in moral compensation for his unwarrantedly long pre-trial detention