FIFTH SECTION
DECISION
Application no. 20832/18
Eduard Yevgeniyovych KLYMENKO against Ukraine
The European Court of Human Rights (Fifth Section), sitting on 23 November 2023 as a Committee composed of:
Mārtiņš Mits, President,
Kateřina Šimáčková,
Mykola Gnatovskyy, judges,
and Viktoriya Maradudina, Acting Deputy Section Registrar,
Having regard to the above application lodged on 27 April 2018,
Having deliberated, decides as follows:
FACTS AND PROCEDURE
The applicant, Mr Eduard Yevgeniyovych Klymenko, is a Ukrainian national, who was born in 1964 and lives in the city of Kharkiv, Ukraine.
On 26 January 2007 criminal proceedings were instituted against the applicant on suspicion of abuse of office. On 19 November 2012 the criminal charges against the applicant were fully dismissed. However, the investigation into the non-payment of salaries, including those owed to the applicant, continued. Furthermore, in 2013 a fraud case was opened against the company in which the applicant worked as the director. Based on the available case-file materials, it appears that the applicant has a victim status in the latter proceedings and both cases, despite being repeatedly closed and reopened, are pending. The applicant has not lodged any civil claims within these criminal proceedings.
The applicant’s complaints under Article 6 § 1 and Article 13 of the Convention concerning the excessive length of civil proceedings and the lack of any effective remedy in domestic law were communicated to the Ukrainian Government (“the Government”).
THE LAW
The Court notes that Article 6 § 1 of the Convention under its civil limb is applicable to criminal proceedings from the moment applicants have joined them as civil parties (see Molchanova v. Ukraine (dec.), no. 4465/18, § 28, 26 September 2023). In the present application, having examined all the material before it, the Court considers that in the absence of any civil claim lodged by the applicant, Article 6 § 1 of the Convention is inapplicable to such proceedings (see Skorokhodov v. Ukraine, no. 56697/09, § 42, 14 November 2013).
As regards the lack of any effective remedy for complaints raised above, the Court, considering its findings under Article 6 of the Convention, concludes that the applicant has no arguable claim for the purposes of Article 13 of the Convention.
In view of the foregoing the Court finds that the application is incompatible ratione materiae with the provisions of the Convention within the meaning of Article 35 § 3 (a) of the Convention and must be rejected pursuant to Article 35 § 4 of the Convention.
For these reasons, the Court, unanimously,
Declares the application inadmissible.
Done in English and notified in writing on 14 December 2023.
Viktoriya Maradudina Mārtiņš Mits
Acting Deputy Registrar President
Full & Egal Universal Law Academy