ANTOVSKI AND OTHERS v. NORTH MACEDONIA

Avrupa İnsan Hakları Mahkemesi

Karar Metni

Communicated on 4 March 2020

Published on 23 March 2020

FIRST SECTION

Application no. 68160/17
Despot ANTOVSKI and Others
against North Macedonia
lodged on 7 September 2017

SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE

The application concerns the alleged lack of impartiality of judge L.K.B., who was a member of the three-judge panel of Gostivar Appeal Court, which upheld a civil claim against the applicants.

In an appeal against the first-instance court judgment the applicants requested that judge L.K.B. be excluded from the adjudicating panel, alleging that the judge’s husband had been a close friend of the husband of the plaintiff’s sister, who had lived in a single household with the plaintiff. The President of that court considered a statement by judge L.K.B. in which she had confirmed the above allegations, but held that they were insufficient to justify her exclusion. The Supreme Court, which decided the case on third and final instance, did not address the applicants’ submissions in this respect.

QUESTION TO THE PARTIES

Did the applicants have a fair hearing in the determination of their civil rights and obligations, in accordance with Article 6 § 1 of the Convention? In particular, was the panel of Gostivar Court of Appeal impartial, as required by Article 6 § 1 of the Convention, given the reasons provided by the President of that court for dismissing the applicants’ request for exclusion of judge L.K.B. (Morice v. France [GC], no. 29369/10, §§ 73-78, ECHR 2015; Nikolov v. the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, no. 41195/02, § 26, 20 December 2007 and Mitrov v. the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, no. 45959/09, § 54, 2 June 2016)?

APPENDIX

No.

Applicant's Name

Birth date

Nationality

Place of residence

Despot ANTOVSKI

06/03/1952