FIFTH SECTION
DECISION
Application no. 29834/05
by Ivan Spirov BUTRAKOV
against Bulgaria
The European Court of Human Rights (Fifth Section), sitting on 29 June 2010 as a Chamber composed of:
Peer Lorenzen, President,
Renate Jaeger,
Rait Maruste,
Isabelle Berro-Lefèvre,
Mirjana Lazarova Trajkovska,
Zdravka Kalaydjieva,
Ganna Yudkivska, judges,
and Claudia Westerdiek, Section Registrar,
Having regard to the above application lodged on 26 July 2005,
Having regard to the formal declarations accepting a friendly settlement of the case,
Having deliberated, decides as follows:
PROCEDURE
The application was lodged by Mr Ivan Spirov Butrakov, a Bulgarian national who was born in 1933 and lives in Pazardzhik. The Bulgarian Government (“the Government”) were represented by their Agent, Ms M. Kotseva, of the Ministry of Justice.
The applicant complained, in particular, about the length of the partition proceedings against him, which had begun on 31 March 1993 and were still pending (Article 6 § 1 of the Convention).
On 15 June 2009 the President of the Fifth Section communicated to the Government the complaint about the length of proceedings.
On 22 September 2009 and 5 March 2010 the Court received friendly settlement declarations signed by the parties under which the applicant agreed to waive any further claims against Bulgaria in respect of the facts giving rise to this application against an undertaking by the Government to pay him 6,000 euros to cover any pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage as well as costs and expenses, which would be converted into Bulgarian levs at the rate applicable on the date of payment, and would be free of any taxes that might be chargeable to the applicant. It would be payable within three months from the date of notification of the decision taken by the Court pursuant to Article 37 § 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights. In the event of failure to pay this sum within the said three-month period, the Government undertook to pay simple interest on it, from expiry of that period until settlement, at a rate equal to the marginal lending rate of the European Central Bank during the default period plus three percentage points. The payment will constitute the final resolution of the case.
On 24 March 2010 the applicant informed the Court that the partition proceedings were still pending and that on 12 March 2010 the Pazardzhik Regional Court had remitted the case to the Pazardzhik District Court. However, the applicant neither withdrew his declaration nor made any requests to the Court in this respect.
THE LAW
The Court takes note of the friendly settlement reached between the parties. It is satisfied that the settlement is based on respect for human rights as defined in the Convention and its Protocols and finds no public policy reasons to justify a continued examination of the application (Article 37 § 1 in fine of the Convention).
In view of the above, it is appropriate to strike the case out of the list.
For these reasons, the Court unanimously
Decides to strike the application out of its list of cases.
Claudia WesterdiekPeer Lorenzen
RegistrarPresident
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