How do you complain about conditions in the place of detention?
General complaints
You may be temporarily kept at the police department for no more than seven days from the moment of detention. If you are not surrendered within seven days of your detention, you must be placed at a detention facility.
If you believe that the conditions at detention facility violated your rights, you can complain about this to the police department which detained you.
Court
You can bring a lawsuit against the police department to the Regional Court in Bratislava / Regional Court in Košice within 20 or 30 days (it depends on the type of the decision) from delivery of the decision. Lawsuit against the lawfulness of detention shall be brought not later than 7 days from the delivery of the decision. You can bring a lawsuit repeatedly, not earlier than 30 days after the last court decision. Procedure is described in the Code of Administrative Court Procedure.
Public Prosecutor Office
You can also file a complaint to the Public Prosecutor Office which oversees the legality of conditions in places of restrictions of personal freedom. Therefore, it is possible to file a complaint about conditions to competent regional prosecutor office who are authorized to investigate conditions in detention.
Filing a complaint to the police department and to the Public Prosecutor Office are not mutually exclusive.
The investigation finds out the true state of affairs and evaluate compliance with the law, including regulations on conditions in the detention. If it is found that the complaint is justified and that the law has been violated, corrective measures must be taken and the reasons for the situation must also be described.
Complaints to the Public Defender of Rights (Ombudsperson)
The treatment of persons deprived of their personal liberty may also be the subject of a complaint addressed to the Office of the Public Defender of Rights. The Ombudsperson is entitled to visit facilities where personal liberty is restricted and to act in order to investigate the treatment of persons in custody, to ascertain the state of affairs and to recommend remedial action to the competent authorities. The complaint should describe as concretely as possible the facts which, in your opinion, infringed your law during the detention.
The Act on the Public Defender of Rights does not provide time limits for the Public Defender of Rights to process complaints. The speed of the investigation depends on the amount of information provided, the urgency and the complexity of the matter. In order for your complaint to be assessed urgently, it is necessary to state specific facts and actions that lead to an interference with your rights. The correspondence with the Ombudsperson must not be supervised by the detention center.
Read more about how to complain to the Ombudsperson.