Principal facts
The applicant, Ryszard Rokosz, is a Polish national who was born in 1951 and is currently held in Białystok Prison (Poland). While he was serving various prison sentences, Białystok Regional Court granted him two months’ prison leave in 2007 for health reasons. It based its decision on an expert’s opinion indicating that Mr Rokosz required urgent physiotherapy (following a plastic hip implant in 2003), and on another opinion to the effect that the treatment could not be provided to him in prison. The prison leave was extended a number of times, for about a year and a half in total, in the light of medical reports indicating that he required cardiological treatment outside the prison, particularly after a heart attack, and that his health problems were incurable and progressive and put his health and life at serious risk. The opinion of an expert cardiologist in November 2007 stated that to keep him in prison would entail a huge risk and might even be fatal, that he had to be permanently monitored by specialists, which no prison could guarantee, and that he needed rapid access to specialised healthcare.
On 3 November 2008 Mr Rokosz was, however, returned to prison. His request for a stay of execution of his sentences on medical grounds was rejected on 16 December 2008 by Olsztyn District Court, which gave its decision after examining an expert cardiologist’s opinion of 6 September 2008 indicating that the combination of Mr Rokosz’s illnesses represented a serious danger for his health and even for his life. The expert concluded that Mr Rokosz was permanently unsuited for imprisonment, but pointed out that if the court should decide otherwise he would have to be placed in a prison with a hospital unit. Based on that latter comment by the expert, the court found that there were “no obstacles capable of continuing to prevent the enforcement of the sentences”. Mr Rokosz appealed against that decision but was unsuccessful. On 27 February 2009 Olsztyn Regional Court found that his state of health, although worrying, did not justify suspending his sentence. Having regard to the experts’ opinions in the case file, it pointed out, among other things, that the applicant’s state of health was likely to decline, in any event, whether or not he was imprisoned.
Mr Rokosz requested prison leave on medical grounds, but that request was also rejected, on 6 April 2009, by the Regional Court of Gdańsk, which referred to the view of a manager of Gdańsk Prison hospital that he could receive treatment in detention. On 12 May 2009 Gdańsk Court of Appeal set aside that decision and referred the case back for reconsideration. It took the view that Mr Rokosz’s state of health had to be re-examined by appropriately specialised experts and that it would be for them to conclude whether or not he should remain in prison.
On 19 May 2009 the panel of doctors indicated that he had a “significant” degree of permanent invalidity – which had already been recorded in 2001 – and stated that he was unfit for work and required the permanent assistance of a third party.
To date the Court of Appeal’s decision of 12 May 2009 has not been acted upon.
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