Information Note on the Court’s case-law 68
October 2004
Jalloh v. Germany (dec.) - 54810/00
Decision 26.10.2004 [Section III]
Article 6
Criminal proceedings
Article 6-1
Fair hearing
Use in criminal proceedings of evidence obtained from the accused by forced administration of emetics: admissible
Article 8
Article 8-1
Respect for private life
Forced administration of emetics to a suspected drug trafficker: admissible
The applicant, who was suspected by plain-clothes policemen of selling drugs, was arrested. While under arrest he swallowed a small bag which led the prosecutor to order that emetics be administered to the applicant to provoke regurgitation of the bag. As the applicant refused, a salt solution and syrup were forcibly administered by way of a tube introduced into his nose and another substance was injected. Thereafter, the applicant was placed in detention on remand until he was convicted by a District Court for drug trafficking. Prior to his conviction his lawyer submitted that the relevant pieces of evidence had been obtained by illegal means and that the administration of emetics had been a disproportionate measure under the Code of Criminal Procedure, as it would have been possible to obtain the same result by waiting until the bag was excreted in a natural way. These arguments, which the applicant repeated at three levels of jurisdiction, were dismissed by the courts, which held that the administration of the products even against the will of the applicant had been legal and necessary to conserve the evidence of drug trafficking. The Constitutional Court refused to entertain the applicant’s complaint as he had not availed himself of all remedies at his disposal. It also held that the measure in question did not raise any constitutional objections of principle with respect to human dignity or concerning the protection against self-incrimination.
Admissible under Articles 3, 6 (fair hearing) and 8: As to exhaustion of domestic remedies, by finding that the impugned measure had not raised any constitutional objections of principle the Constitutional Court had examined, at least partially, the substance of the applicant’s complaint.
Inadmissible under Article 13: The applicant had several judicial remedies at his disposal to challenge the lawfulness of the contested measure: manifestly ill-founded.
[The Chamber proposed to relinquish jurisdiction in favour of the Grand Chamber.]
© Council of Europe/European Court of Human Rights
This summary by the Registry does not bind the Court.
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