FIFTH SECTION

DECISION

Application no. 466/05
by Raul KOHNER
against the Czech Republic

The European Court of Human Rights (Fifth Section), sitting on 4 November 2008 as a Chamber composed of:

Rait Maruste, President,
Karel Jungwiert,
Volodymyr Butkevych,
Renate Jaeger,
Mark Villiger,
Isabelle Berro-Lefèvre,
Mirjana Lazarova Trajkovska, judges,
and Stephen Phillips, Deputy Section Registrar,

Having regard to the above application lodged on 20 December 2004,

Having regard to the formal declarations accepting a friendly settlement of the case,

Having deliberated, decides as follows:

THE FACTS

The applicant, Mr Raul Kohner, is a Czech national who was born in 1965 and lives in Plzeň. He was represented before the Court by Mr Vokoun, a lawyer practising in Kladno. The Czech Government (“the Government”) were represented by their Agent, Mr V.A. Schorm, from the Ministry of Justice.

The facts of the case, as submitted by the parties, may be summarised as follows.

On 27 December 1998 an unknown person of Bulgarian origin shot dead a third person in the McDonald’s restaurant in central Prague.

A criminal investigation was instituted.

By a judgment of 26 April 2002 the Municipal Court convicted the applicant of conspiracy to commit both homicides, at the request of the first victim’s wife, and sentenced him to twenty-two years’ imprisonment.

Complaints about the alleged unfairness of the proceedings, raised by the applicant in a constitutional appeal, were found unsubstantiated by the Constitutional Court (Ústavní soud) on 24 June 2004.

COMPLAINTS

Relying on Articles 6 §§ 1 and 3 d) of the Convention, the applicant complained about the alleged unfairness of the proceedings against him.

THE LAW

On 4 September 2008 the Court received the following declaration from the Government:

“I, Vít Alexander Schorm, Agent of the Government of