Romania is first by the number of pending cases against it at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg, with about 9,900 complaints, which represent 17.6% of the court’s case load at the end of last year, ECHR president Guido Raimondi said on Thursday.

Most of the cases are about the poor detention conditions in Romania’s prisons, Raimondi explained.

The institution presented its annual report for 2017, which also shows that Romania was among the countries with the highest number of judgments against them finding at least one violation of the convention, namely 55 such judgements in 2017. Romania came after Russia, with 293 judgements finding violations of the convention, Turkey (99), and Ukraine (82).

Romania is currently working on a set of measures aimed at reducing prison overcrowding. Some of the measures considered are introducing the electronic bracelet and house arrest for some convicts and building new prisons.

Last year, Romania also adopted a law that reduced the sentences of convicts held in improper conditions by six days for every 30 days served. This has led to the early release of hundreds of convicts.

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editor@romania-insider.com