FIRST SECTION
Application no. 72254/11
Savo BOGDANOVIĆ and others
against Croatia
lodged on 11 November 2011
STATEMENT OF FACTS
The applicants, Mr Milan Bogdanović, Ms Rosa Bogdanović and Mr Savo Bogdanović are Croatian citizens of Serbian ethnic origin. They were born in 1950, 1952 and 1954 respectively and live in Bosanski Brod, Bosnia and Herzegovina. They are represented before the Court by Mr L. Šušak, a lawyer practicing in Zagreb.
A. The circumstances of the case
The facts of the case, as submitted by the applicants, may be summarised as follows.
1. Criminal Investigation
On 11 April 1994 the applicants’ father Bogdan Bogdanović was killed in his house in Slavonski Brod in Croatia. The police lodged a criminal complaint on 22 May 1992 with the Požega County State Attorney’s Office. It appears that the investigation is still ongoing.
2. Civil proceedings
On an unspecified date the applicants brought a civil action against the State in the Zagreb Municipal Court, seeking compensation in connection with the death of their father. The claim was dismissed on 24 March 2006 and this judgment was upheld by the Zagreb County Court and the Supreme Court on 13 May 2008 and 9 June 2010, respectively. The national courts found that the claim had been submitted after the statutory limitation period had expired.
The applicants’ subsequent constitutional complaint was dismissed on 4 May 2011.
COMPLAINTS
The applicants complain under Article 2 of the Convention of the killing of their father. They also complain that the criminal law mechanisms as applied in the case at issue have not met the standards of the procedural aspect of Article 2 of the Convention.
They complain that their father was killed solely because of his Serbian origin and that, contrary to their procedural obligations under Article 14 of the Convention, the relevant authorities have failed to investigate the possibility of such a motive for his death.
Finally, they also complain under Article 6 of the Convention of the assessment of facts and interpretation of laws by the national courts as regards their civil action for damages.
QUESTIONS TO THE PARTIES
1. Having regard to the procedural protection of the right to life, was the manner in which the criminal law mechanisms have been applied in the present case by the domestic authorities in breach of Article 2 of the Convention?
2. Have the relevant authorities complied with their procedural obligation under Article 14 of the Convention to investigate whether there was any motive behind killings of the applicant’s father that might be related to his Serbian origin (see, mutatis mutandis, Šečić v. Croatia, no. 40116/02, § 66, ECHR 2007‑VI)?
The Government are invited to submit copies of all case files and other documents concerning the killing of the applicants’ father Bogdan Bogdanović.
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