Supreme Court to consider compulsory security measures and medical treatment

The Plenum of the Supreme Court of Belarus, scheduled for March 28, will for the first time be dedicated to judicial issues related to the use of coercive measures of security and medical treatment in the criminal justice proceedings, the BelaPAN news agency reports, quoting the Supreme Court’s spokeswoman Maryia Lapo.

Compulsory security measures and medical treatment are a type of criminal law-enforcement, which is not a criminal punishment but a system of psychotherapy, health-care and medical rehabilitation measures and supervision applied to persons suffering from mental disorders (diseases) that prevent them from realizing the significance of their actions or controlling them, provided the person by the nature of one’s acts and one’s mental state constitutes a danger to society.

These measures can be applied to people with mental disorders (diseases), in case it is established that they, while being in a state of complete lack of memory, committed a socially dangerous act under criminal law.

Depending on the nature of the disease (disorder) of the person, the degree of threat they pose by the socially dangerous act, the court may apply the following safety measures and coercive treatment: involuntary outpatient supervision and treatment by a specialist in the provision of psychiatric care, compulsory treatment in a psychiatric hospital with the usual, enhanced or maximum supervision.

The use of security measures and treatment is aimed at preventing such persons from committing new socially dangerous acts, as well as their protection and treatment.

According to court statistics, the number of convicted persons with unconsciousness, who have been subjected to coercive measures, has declined by slightly more than 100 people over the past five years (in 2008 - 437, in 2012 - 324).

For persons who have committed crimes in a state of reduced insanity and chronic alcoholism, drug addiction or substance abuse, may be subjected to forced security measures and treatment along with other measures of punishment or criminal liability.

According to Mrs. Lapo, the ratio of people suffering from chronic alcoholism, drug addiction, substance abuse, convicted in the past five years, has increased by almost 2 times. In 2008, out of 68,531 convicts 11,314 persons suffered from such diseases; in 2012, out of 40,356 convicts there were already 11,621 such persons. There has been a slight increase in the number of convicts who have committed crimes in a state of lower consciousness (135 persons in 2008, 152 - in 2012).