MOSCOW, September 23 (RIA Novosti) – A citizen of Latvia held in a psychiatric hospital against his will has been awarded with 10,000 Euros (about $13,000) as judges accepted that his human rights had been breached, the European Council’s Human Rights Europe website stated on Tuesday.
The Latvian national from Riga was held for eight months after police officers took him from his flat to a local psychiatric hospital back in 2009. According to the statement, the man was discharged from hospital in 2007 “following a decision ordering his treatment as an outpatient.”
“Relying on Article 5 Paragraphs 1 and 4 (right to liberty and security and to have lawfulness of detention decided speedily by a court) of the European Convention on Human Rights, the applicant complained that his involuntary admission to a psychiatric hospital had not been justified and that he had not been able to challenge the lawfulness of his detention,” the statement informed.
The Council of Europe is based in Strasbourg, France and covers 47 member countries. Founded on 5 May 1949 the organization seeks the development of common and democratic principles based on the European Convention on Human Rights throughout the continent.
