Resolution CM/ResDH(2012)92[1]
Execution of the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights
Szepesi against Hungary
(Application No. 7983/06, judgment of 21 December 2010, final on 21 March 2011)
The Committee of Ministers, under the terms of Article 46, paragraph 2, of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, which provides that the Committee supervises the execution of final judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (hereinafter “the Convention” and “the Court”),
Having regard to the final judgment transmitted by the Court to the Committee in the above case and to the violation established (see document DH-DD(2012)387E);
Recalling that the respondent State’s obligation under Article 46, paragraph 1, of the Convention to abide to by all final judgments in cases to which it has been a party and that this obligation entails, over and above the payment of any sums awarded by the Court, the adoption by the authorities of the respondent State, where required :
- of individual measures to put an end to violations established and erase their consequences so as to achieve as far as possible restitutio in integrum; and
- of general measures preventing similar violations;
Having invited the government of the respondent state to inform the Committee of the measures taken to comply with its above mentioned obligation;
Having examined the action report provided by the government indicating the measures adopted in order to give effect to the judgment, including the information provided regarding the payment of the just satisfaction awarded by the Court (see document DH-DD(2012)387E);
Having satisfied itself that all the measures required by Article 46, paragraph 1, have been adopted;
DECLARES that it has exercised its functions under Article 46, paragraph 2, of the Convention in this case and
DECIDES to close the examination thereof.
Action Report of 19 August 2011
Appl. No. 7983/06
Szepesi, judgment of 21/12/2010 (Revised)
Introductory case summary
The applicant, Tibor Szepesi, is a Hungarian national who was born in 1966 and lives in Budapest. Relying on Article 5 § 3 (right to liberty and security) he complained that he had been kept in detention on remand for three years on drug-trafficking charges. He was found guilty in September 2008 and sentenced to six years’ imprisonment. The Court found a violation in particular because although a bill of indictment was submitted on 05/07/2004, the trial only began on 09/05/2005. The Court found that this ten-month period of inactivity was irreconcilable with the requisite “special diligence” in such cases.
I.Individual measures
Just satisfaction rewarded to the applicant was paid on 21 April 2011 (non-pecuniary damage 4800 €, 1269874 HUF). The excessive time spent in pre-trial detention was taken into account by the court sentencing the applicant to 6 years of imprisonment (see § 19 of the judgment). Therefore no further individual measures are necessary in the execution process.
II.General measures
Publication and dissemination
The decision was translated and the Hungarian version was published on the website of the Government ().
The Government sent the judgment to the Office of the National Judicial Council in order to inform the courts about the content of the judgment and to take due account of the findings of the judgment in their future practice.
It should be recalled that the general measures concerning excessive length of pre-trial detention were already adopted in the context of the cases of Imre, Maglódi, Csâky and Bârkânyi against Hungary (see Resolution CM/ResDH(2011)222).
III.Conclusions of the respondent state
The Government considers that the measures adopted have fully remedied the consequences for the applicant of the violation of the Convention found by the Court in this case, and that Hungary has thus complied with its obligations under Article 46, Paragraph 1 of the Convention.
Budapest, 19 March 2012
Zoltân Tallódi
Co-Agent of the
Government of Hungary
[1] Adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 6 June 2012 at the 1144th Meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies.
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