European Court of Human Rights
12 June 2007
Facts
The applicant, Mr. Frérot, was sentenced to life imprisonment. He had been in prison for over six years when he was first told to open his mouth during a strip-search. When he refused, he was placed in a disciplinary cell. Subsequently, over several months, he was told to open his mouth during a number of strip-searches, either without warning or when he was leaving the visiting room. If he refused, he was taken to a disciplinary cell. He was subsequently transferred to a higher-security prison where, for two years, upon leaving the visiting room after each visit he was subjected to a strip-search including the obligation to “bend over and cough”, to enable a visual inspection of his anus.
Complaint
The applicant complained that the methods of full-body search were inhuman and degrading. He stated that he was systematically disciplined for refusing to submit to these searches and invoked article 3 of the Convention.
Court’s ruling
The Court found that the purpose of the body searches, the procedure and the precautions prescribed in the French law were appropriate. However, the Court found, in the specific circumstances of this case, that full-body body searches were carried out systematically, every time prisoners left the visit room, because there was a presumption that any prisoner returning from the visiting room was hiding objects in his most intimate parts.
The Court considered that anal inspections in such conditions were not based, as they should be, on a convincing security imperative or the need to prevent disorder or crime. The feelings of arbitrariness, of inferiority and anxiety associated with these body searches led to a degree of humiliation which exceeded what was inevitable during such searches. This humiliation was aggravated by the fact that the applicant’s refusal to obey resulted in him being taken to a disciplinary cell.
The Court concluded that the searches the applicant had been subjected while in prison amounted to degrading treatment, in violation of article 3 of the Convention.