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A resident of Šiauliai, who is now 72 years old, was arrested in 2017 for three months. A court in Kretinga ordered his arrest after accusing him of delaying the process in a case of misuse of European Union aid.
The woman was arrested when she was not coming from Šiauliai to the court hearing in Kretinga. The woman assured him that she did not appear in court on the road in the event of a car breakdown.
However, the Kretinga court, having also assessed her previous absences due to illness, determined that the woman had deliberately delayed the process and ordered her arrest.
The three-judge panel of the Strasbourg court concluded that the Lithuanian courts had not properly determined whether the woman had actually suffered an incident with the car, had not assessed her health and had not considered the possibility of less favorable measures.
“There is nothing in the record to show that the national courts took reasonable steps to verify whether the accident occurred before ordering her arrest, such as asking the plaintiff to provide additional documents or an explanation,” the court said.
Be that as it may, even accepting that, in view of their previous unjustified absences, the national courts were justified in seeking restrictive measures to ensure their participation in the hearing, the Court reiterates that the detention is so severe that it is only justified as a last resort , after considering other less strict measures and declaring them insufficient to protect the interests of the individual or society, which may require the arrest of the person concerned, ”says the European Court of Human Rights.
The Strasbourg judges noted that the judgments of the Kretinga District Court and the Klaipėda Regional Court did not explain why the woman could not be placed under house arrest, on bail or electronic surveillance.
“The courts did not explicitly address the plaintiff’s health problem in their rulings and did not declare that it was compatible with the arrest based on the conclusions of the court-appointed experts or other available information,” the ruling reads.
Lithuania will have to pay LTL 7,000 to Šiauliai for an unjustified restriction of freedom within three months. euros.
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