6.  The applicant was born in 1957 and lives in Wiener Neustadt, Austria. 7.  On 15 September 2010 he was arrested in Hungary and on 17 January 2011 he was extradited to Moldova on suspicion of defrauding C., a company registered in Moldova. 8.  The applicant describes in the following way the conditions of his detention in Prison no. 13, where he was detained between 21 January and 23 August 2011. For the first month he was held in cell no. 13, designed for prisoners with medical problems, since he had complained upon his arrival of pain due to his prostate cancer, as well as hypertension. As fifteen other inmates with various illnesses were all crammed into this cell, he was afraid of getting other illnesses and avoided asking for detention in this “treatment cell” thereafter. 9.  After approximately one month he was transferred to cell no. 123. The cell was in the basement and had no access to natural light. A window opened on to another room which had an opening in its roof, thus giving a glimpse of daylight. The cell was damp and cold; clothes rotted as a result. It was full of parasitic insects and rats. The water was yellow because the pipes were rusted, but he had to drink it in the absence of an alternative. Even that water was not always available, so the detainees collected it in plastic bottles. There was no toilet and detainees had to use a bucket, which caused a horrible smell. Most of the detainees smoked in the cell, which caused the applicant to suffer. The food served sometimes consisted of warm water and stale bread, and at other times of inedible cereals full of insects. 10.  According to the applicant, he did not receive the medical treatment required to treat his illness. The prison did not have a doctor who specialised in treating cancer, nor did it have the sophisticated equipment with which he had been treated in Austria before his arrest. He received basic medication for his hypertension. As a result of the lack of specialised medical assistance the applicant’s state of health worsened to such an extent that he could no longer control the process of urination, wetting himself as a result and thus having to endure additional humiliation. In the absence of changes of clothes or incontinence pads, he had to wait for the next day for bathing, which happened only once a week. He claims that only the intervention of his cellmates prevented his suicide on several occasions, as confirmed by the signatures of five cellmates under his description of the conditions addressed to his lawyer. Moreover, after the change of the preventive measure from detention to house arrest on 23 August 2011 he continued to need specialised treatment, but was unable to secure it since he had no money to pay for a hospital. 11.  According to the Government, during his detention in Prison no. 13 the applicant was held in cell no. 13, designed for twelve detainees and measuring 30 square metres, cell no. 123, designed for six detainees and measuring 13.68 square metres, and cell no. 80, designed for six detainees and measuring 15 square meters. Each cell was lit by three 100-W bulbs and had a window and artificial ventilation, as well as a washbasin and a toilet separated from the rest of the cell by a partition. The cells were regularly disinfected, and tap water was always available except for during repair periods, when water was brought in in special receptacles. 12.  Hot food three times a day was ensured in accordance with Government Decision no. 609 concerning the minimal norms of food for detainees. The budget for food, medication and other expenses grew steadily each year (the total prison budget rose from 3,453,000 Moldovan lei (MDL) in 2007 to MDL 4,813,300 in 2011). 13.  In an appeal to the Chișinău Court of Appeal on 18 February 2011 the applicant referred to his poor state of health as a reason for his release; he was ill with prostate cancer. 14.  On 19 April 2011 the applicant asked to be released, relying, inter alia, on a letter from his doctor in Austria concerning his untreated cancer and recommendations after delayed surgery for cancer in 2008. That request was refused on 20 April 2011 by the Buiucani District Court. 15.  In an appeal of 16 May 2011 against a further extension of his detention, the applicant noted, inter alia, the lack in Prison no. 13 of medical personnel who specialised in treating his kind of illness, as well as the lack of equipment required to treat him, and the worsening of his health resulting in severe pain and in his inability to control the urination process, causing him to wet himself. He relied on Article 3 of the Convention. On 24 May 2011 the Chișinău Court of Appeal dismissed that appeal, finding that there was no medical evidence in the file to suggest that the applicant could not be treated while in detention. 16.  On 29 June 2011 the applicant asked to have his detention replaced with house arrest, relying, inter alia, on Article 3 of the Convention. He relied on a reply by the medical service of Prison no. 13 as to the specific treatment given to him. According to that reply of 1 June 2011 he was being treated with hypertension pills and his blood pressure was monitored daily. The applicant claimed that this proved that he had no treatment whatever for his prostate cancer. This request was refused on 29 June 2011 by the Buiucani District Court. 17.  In an appeal of 1 July 2011 the applicant repeated his submissions made before the Buiucani District Court. 18.  On 23 August 2011 the Chișinău Court of Appeal replaced the applicant’s detention with house arrest. On 23 January 2012 the Buiucani District Court replaced that preventive measure with an undertaking not to leave the country. 19.  The Court refers to the findings made by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, as cited in its previous case-law concerning the Republic of Moldova (see, for instance, Shishanov v. the Republic of Moldova, no. 11353/06, §§ 57-60, 15 September 2015). 20.  In its report for 2010 (page 142 et seq., “Conditions of detention”) the Human Rights Centre (the Moldovan Ombudsman institution) found, inter alia, that:
“... [T]he Prisons Department informed the Ombudsman that meat and fish products are provided [to detainees] whenever possible. At the same time, that authority stated that, owing to the difficult financial situation, during 2010 the detainees in Prison no. 17 in Rezina received 75% and 80% of their normal quotas of meat and fish products respectively. In this connection, the Minister of Justice submitted information concerning the expenditure on prisoners’ food in 2010. The cost amounted to MDL 24,500,000, whereas the budgetary need for the same year was, according to the Ministry of Finance’s draft budget, MDL 29,500,000. The daily cost of feeding a detainee in 2010 was MDL 10.24 [approximately EUR 0.6], while the daily budgetary need was MDL 12.35. This statistic was often cited by prison authorities to justify why they were unable to provide detainees with meat and fish ...” 21.  In its report for 2011 (page 71 et seq., “Conditions of detention”) the Human Rights Centre found, inter alia, that during 2011 it had addressed a total of seventeen recommendations to the authorities after making 238 visits to various prisons in Moldova. All of them noted problems concerning conditions of detention, and a significant proportion also noted problems with medical assistance. The report noted that in most cases prisons were overcrowded, each detainee having less than four square metres of personal space.
In respect of Prison no. 13 the report stated that:
“... the situation in respect of conditions of detention ... is of real concern. ... The Moldovan Minister of Justice confirmed that the conditions in prisons are akin to those in medieval times, noting that the conditions in prisons constitute a systemic problem.”
The report noted the continuing problem of insufficient access to daylight in the cells, in which the windows are covered with layers of metal bars, the lack of ventilation, increased humidity in the cells, very worn-out bed linen, the separation of the toilet from the rest of the cell by a cellophane sheet, or the lack of any type of separation.
The Human Rights Centre recommended that Prison no. 13 be closed down in order to avoid new findings of violations by the Court.
The report also found that there was a lack of medical staff in prisons, with only 245 posts out of 321 filled. 22.  In December 2015 the Human Rights Centre repeated its recommendation of closing down Prison no. 13 and, if that was impossible, the urgent improvement of conditions of detention there.