THIRD SECTION
DECISION
Applications nos. 30710/06 and 31451/06
by Mesud DŽAJIĆ and Avdulah AHMETOVIČ
against Slovenia
The European Court of Human Rights (Third Section), sitting on 7 December 2010 as a Committee composed of:
Elisabet Fura, President,
Boštjan M. Zupančič,
Ineta Ziemele, judges,
and Marialena Tsirli, Deputy Section Registrar,
Having regard to the above applications lodged on 12 July 2006 and 19 July 2006,
Having regard to the Government’s settlement proposals made to the applicants,
Having deliberated, decides as follows:
THE FACTS
The applicants are Slovenian nationals who live in Slovenia.
They were represented before the Court by Ms M. Končan Verstovšek, a lawyer practising in Celje.
The Slovenian Government (“the Government”) were represented by their Agent, Mr Lucijan Bembič, State Attorney-General.
The facts of the case, as submitted by the applicants, may be summarised as follows.
The applicants were parties to civil proceedings which were finally resolved (pravnomočno končan postopek) before 1 January 2007, that is, before the 2006 Act on the Protection of the Right to a Trial without Undue Delay (“the 2006 Act”) became operational.
The details concerning the cases are indicated in the attached table.
COMPLAINTS
The applicants complained under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention about the excessive length of civil proceedings and under Article 13 of the Convention about the lack of an effective domestic remedy in that regard.
THE LAW
The Court notes that, after the Government had been given notice of the applications, they informed the Court that the applicants and the State’s Attorney’s Office had reached a friendly settlement.
By the settlement agreements signed by the State’s Attorney’s Office and the applicants, the former acknowledged a violation of the right to a trial within a reasonable time and accepted to pay the damage sustained and costs and expenses incurred. The applicants accepted the amount as full compensation for the damage sustained due to the length of the above proceedings and waived any further claims against the Republic of Slovenia in respect of this complaint.
The applicants subsequently informed the Court, in writing, that the cases had been settled at the domestic level and that they wished to withdraw their applications.
The Court recalls Article 37 of the Convention which, in the relevant part, reads as follows:
“1. The Court may at any stage of the proceedings decide to strike an application out of its list of cases where the circumstances lead to the conclusion that
(a) the applicant does not intend to pursue his application; or
(b) the matter has been resolved;
...
However, the Court shall continue the examination of the application if respect for human rights as defined in the Convention and the Protocols thereto so requires.”
The Court takes note that following the settlements reached between the parties the matters have been resolved at the domestic level and that the applicants do not wish to pursue their applications. It is satisfied that respect for human rights as defined in the Convention or its Protocols does not require the examination of the applications to be continued (Article 37 § 1 in fine of the Convention).
In view of the above, it is appropriate to strike the cases out of the list in accordance with Article 37 § 1 (a) and (b) of the Convention.
For these reasons, the Court unanimously
Decides to join the applications;
Decides to strike the applications out of its list of cases.
Marialena TsirliElisabet FuraDeputy Registrar President
Appendix
No.
Application No.
Applicant’s Name
Year of Birth
Address
Date of Introduction
Date of domestic settlement and compensation paid to the applicant
Date of the applicant’s withdrawal of the application
1.
30710/06
Mesud DŽAJIĆ
1960
Velenje
12/07/2006
13/02/2009, 4.320,00 EUR for damage and 330,50 EUR for costs and expenses
24/07/2009
2.
31451/06
Avdulah AHMETOVIČ
1959
Velenje
19/07/2006
04/02/2009, 1.080,00 EUR for damage and 220,33 EUR for costs and expenses
16/10/2009
Full & Egal Universal Law Academy