The Constitutional Court has granted protection to a sentenced to six months in prison for non-payment of 2,100 euros that had been imposed for compensate the victim for civil liability. The suspension of the execution of the sentence was revoked one year after it was imposed without hearing him previously and verifying his real economic capacity.
The ruling, for which Cándido Conde-Pumpido was the rapporteur, reinforces the fundamental right not to enter prison solely for non-payment of debts. It is based on the fact that the order to enter prison to serve the short sentence of deprivation of liberty was agreed upon without hearing the prisoner beforehand and personally and that it was based exclusively on the fact that he had failed to comply with the payment commitment without assessing his real economic circumstances.
sight to defend
The Constitutional Court recalls that, in accordance with the settled jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, the deprivation of liberty must be imposed or reviewed after a contradictory process, in equal arms, in which the affected person is granted the possibility of alleging what he considers appropriate. And that is mandatory whenever the personal situation of a person is changed both in precautionary measures and in serving sentences.
In this case, the court sent the convicted person to prison for not paying the 2,100 euros, because it understood that he was not doing it fraudulently and had no real will to comply, without listening to him or assessing his real economic capacity.
The prosecution also supported the amparo, understanding that the law does not automatically tie prisoner to non-compliance with the payment commitment, but rather requires verification of the economic capacity of the convicted person to pay it, so that the suspension of the sentence cannot be conditioned to the payment of a civil sentence if there is no real capacity to pay.