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Suspects Locked Up Longer Even as Virus Empties Jails

Suspects Locked Up Longer Even as Virus Empties French Jails

(Bloomberg) --

While France is releasing convicted criminals early to ease pressure on crowded prisons amid the coronavirus pandemic, suspects who haven’t even been tried face longer stays in jail.

The country’s top administrative court sided with the government on rules that extend the detention of suspects without a judge’s authorization. The union of French lawyers balked after the Conseil d’Etat’s decision to dismiss -- without a full examination -- its bid for an urgent ruling to overturn the decree.

“When it comes to fundamental rights and freedom during the health state emergency, the Conseil d’Etat’s message is quite clear: Move along, there’s nothing to see,” the lawyers’ union said Monday in a statement. Another group representing about 70,000 attorneys shared the concerns.

“We cannot accept that pre-trial custody, which concerns solely people who are presumed innocent, is extended even longer than the lockdown, without any legal recourse,” the Conseil National des Barreaux said in a statement. That “is both contrary to our constitution and to the European Convention on Human Rights.”

The lawyer outcry and bad news for pre-trial detainees comes after France, Germany and most recently Britain have begun releasing thousands of inmates nearing the end of their sentences or those that are unwell to try to slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

The French decree, which the government took in a bid to lighten judges’ load, allows the extended custody of suspects for as long as six months.

Last week, a person detained and charged as part of an ongoing French investigation was notified that his custody was extended on the basis of the government decree, said his lawyer, Sébastien Schapira. That happened days before he was set to meet a judge to ask to be released but the hearing was canceled.

“The extension of detention without any legal debate is a clear violation of the presumption of innocence and of defense rights,” Schapira said. “My client is likely to remain in custody several more months even though he hasn’t even been tried yet.”

Elsewhere in Europe

The European Union’s executive arm wants to create a crisis group to overcome the hurdles to cooperation on arrest warrants across the 27-country bloc created by the coronavirus.

Didier Reynders, European justice commissioner, proposed setting up “as quickly as possible” a working group made up of officials in Brussels, representatives from Eurojust, an agency that oversees cooperation on justice matters, and one or two people from each EU member state, commission spokesman Christian Wigand said Tuesday, following a meeting of EU justice ministers and Reynders a day earlier.

European arrest warrants, or EAWs, are a simplified cross-border judicial procedure that obliges the member state to hand over the suspected criminal except in very few prescribed scenarios.

The proposed working group, designed to overcome the “major challenges for international cooperation” posed by the pandemic was “very welcomed” and well-received by justice officials in the individual member states, said Wigand.

Prison Overcrowding

Separately, the Council of Europe issued a report on prison overcrowding, underscoring the risk that the pandemic will spread fastest in the most densely-packed facilities.

Fifteen of the 45 countries that submitted data for the study suffer prison overcrowding, as defined by more than 100 inmates per 100 places, the council said. Topping the list was Turkey at 123, followed by Belgium, with 121, Italy’s 119 and 117 prisoners per 100 places in France.

Echoing a message from colleagues on Monday, Council of Europe Secretary-General Marija Pejcinovic Buric said in a statement that prison administrators should strive to “resort to alternatives to deprivation of liberty, in particular in situations of overcrowding and take all possible measures to protect both the prsion population and prison staff.”

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.