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Visit to Denmark by the CPT

[08.02.02] – A delegation of the Council of Europe Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) carried out a periodic visit to Denmark from 28 January to 4 February 2002. It was the Committee’s third visit to Denmark.

The visit was carried out by the following members of the CPT:

-    Renate KICKER (Head of the delegation) (Austrian)
-     Mario FELICE (Maltese)
-     Eugenijus GEFENAS (Lithuanian)
-     Pétur HAUKSSON (Icelandic)
-     Mauro PALMA (Italian).

They were assisted by Baden Henry SKITT, member of the Criminal Cases Review Commission, United Kingdom, as well as by Hanne JUNCHER and Cyrille ORIZET of the CPT’s Secretariat.

During this visit, the CPT’s delegation met Ms Lene ESPERSEN, Minister for Justice, Mr William RENTZMANN, Director General of the Prison and Probation Service, Ms Lene FRANK, Assistant National Commissioner of Police and Mr Hans GAMMELTOFT-HANSEN, Parliamentary Ombudsman. It also held talks with representatives of the State Prosecution Service and the office of the Commissioner of the Copenhagen Police, as well as with senior officials from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Health, the Ministry of Refugees, Immigration and Integration and European Affairs and the Ministry of Social Affairs.

The CPT’s delegation reviewed measures taken by the Danish authorities in response to the Committee’s recommendations made after its 1990 and 1996 visits, in particular as regards the safeguards offered to persons detained by the police, regimes for prisoners and the situation of immigration detainees. The CPT’s delegation also examined in detail the question of deprivation of liberty and use of means of restraint in the field of psychiatry.

The delegation visited the following places:

Police establishments

• Copenhagen Police Station No. 1

• Copenhagen Police Station No. 6

• Elsinore Police Headquarters

• Glostrup Police Headquarters

• Horsens Police Headquarters

• Elsinore Local Jail

• Horsens State Prison

• Sandholm Foreigners’ Detention Centre

• Vridsløselille State Prison

• Glostrup Hospital Psychiatric Department

• Haderslev Hospital Psychiatric Department

• Nykøbing Sjælland Psychiatric Hospital