Published on 28 July 2025
THIRD SECTION
Application no. 17469/24
Florjan GEGA
against Albania
lodged on 18 June 2024
communicated on 9 July 2025
SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE
The application concerns the criminal trial against the applicant on charges of murder. The applicant asked for a summary trial which would have entailed an automatic reduction of his sentence by one third. The domestic courts held that the summary trial was excluded for criminal offences liable to a life sentence. They held that irrespective of the fact that a life sentence could not have been applied to the applicant since he had been a minor at the time of the alleged offence, the decisive factor was that the criminal offence, as such, was generally liable to a life sentence.
The applicant was sentenced to twelve years’ imprisonment, even though the prosecution had requested a ten-year sentence. In assessing the aggravating factors, the courts found, inter alia, that the applicant’s family was of lower social status and level of education, and therefore would not “positively influence his rehabilitation”.
The applicant complains under Article 7 of the Convention that due to the denial of his request for a summary trial, he was sentenced to a harsher sentence.
He further complains under Article 14 of the Convention (taken in conjunction with Article 5 of the Convention) that the domestic courts discriminated against him in assessing his sentence on the basis of his family’s social status.
QUESTIONS TO THE PARTIES
1. Was a heavier penalty imposed on the applicant than the one which was applicable at the time of the commission of the offence, as proscribed by Article 7 of the Convention?
2. Has the applicant suffered discrimination, due to the sentencing considerations relied on by the national courts, on the ground of his social and/or family status, contrary to Article 14 of the Convention, read in conjunction with Article 5 of the Convention (see Aleksandr Aleksandrov v. Russia, no. 14431/06, §§ 17-30, 27 March 2018; Khamtokhu and Aksenchik v. Russia [GC], nos. 60367/08 and 961/11, §§ 55-59, 24 January 2017; Gerger v. Turkey [GC], no. 24919/94, § 69, 8 July 1999; and Nelson v. the United Kingdom, no. 11077/84, Commission decision of 13 October 1986)?