Communicated on 16 October 2018
FOURTH SECTION
Application no. 38072/11
S.C. CREDIT EUROPE LEASING IFN S.A.
against Romania
lodged on 17 June 2011
SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE
The application concerns the seizure (for the purpose of subsequent confiscation) of the applicant company’s property in the course of a criminal investigation against other companies. It also concerns the impossibility for the applicant – arising from the practice of the domestic courts – of contesting the seizure separately during the investigation. The seizure in question, ordered by the prosecutor on 6 August 2010, concerned 779 press kiosks and 7 lorries lawfully owned by the applicant company and leased to the companies under investigation. The measure is still valid as the investigation is currently ongoing.
According to article 168 of the Criminal Procedure Code in force at the relevant time, the seizure could be contested before the prosecutor or the courts. This provision had been clarified in an appeal in the interests of law by the High Court of Cassation and Justice which held in its decision no. 71/2007 that the seizure could be contested only before the prosecutor while the investigation was ongoing and b
