Assessing Flight Risk in pre-trial detention decision-making: a European comparative study

June 2024

Fair Trials has published a report “Assessing Flight Risk in Pre-Trial Detention Decision Making: A European Comparative Study,” analysing the over-reliance on pre-trial detention practices in the EU.

Read and download the report (PDF)

This study, led by Fair Trials and funded by the European Commission, involved the participation of five EU Member States: Ireland (Irish Council for Civil Liberties), Austria (Ludwig Boltzmann Institute), Poland (Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights), Belgium (National Institute of Criminalistics and Criminology), and Bulgaria (Bulgarian Helsinki Committee).

The study comprises a comparative analysis of the national reports of the five Member States in the context of a review of both the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) case law and the available data and scientific research regarding the risk of flight.

The over-reliance on using flight risk as a ground for pre-trial detention is undermining the EU core values of the right to liberty, the presumption of innocence, access to a lawyer and process and detention as a measure of last resort. This contributes to the EU-wide (and global) overcrowding of prisons, affecting the health and dignity of people in prison.

The findings of the research can be divided into three areas:

Discriminatory impact on pre-trial detention;
Importance of procedural rights in the pre-trial detention assessment phase;
Reluctance by decision makers to use alternative measures.

This study makes recommendations to address these findings for EU legislators, national legislators and practitioners, including judges, defence lawyers and prosecutors:

There is a clear need to harmonise the assessment criteria and ensure procedural
rights guarantees;
The adoption, implementation and application by Member States of alternatives to
detention to address pre-trial detention;
Awareness raising among stakeholders of procedural rights, the broad range of
alternative measures available, and how to apply them in practice through handbooks
and training seminars.