ABSTRACT
The applicant was involved in a traffic accident in 1965 in which he suffered serious brain damage, and he subsequently showed a distinct tendency to become aggressive. In 1967 he was convicted of criminal offences, declared mentally ill and spent the period from May 1967 to July 1978 in mental hospitals. In 1978 he was sentenced to further imprisonment and in addition the court authorised the use of security measures under the Penal Code. On 3 July 1978 the prosecuting authority detained the applicant in a security ward at Ila National Penal and Preventive Detention Institution. Over the years he was released but re-detained following the commission of further offences. In custody he assaulted prison staff and nurses. The applicant alleged that the review available under Norwegian law of the lawfulness of his repeated periods of detention in the Ila security ward and in prison under the Penal Code did not meet the requirements of the Convention in three respects: that the scope of review was too limited, the courts lacked the power to order release and that the Oslo City Court did not deliver its decision in 1988 speedily. Comm found unanimously V 5(4).
