MECJA AND OTHERS v. GREECE

FIRST SECTION

DECISION

Application no. 80083/17
Xhevdet MECJA against Greece
and 6 other applications

(see appended table)

The European Court of Human Rights (First Section), sitting on 7 May 2025 as a Committee composed of:

 Georgios A. Serghides, President,
 Frédéric Krenc,
 Alain Chablais, judges,

and Viktoriya Maradudina, Acting Deputy Section Registrar,

Having regard to the above applications lodged on the various dates indicated in the appended table,

Having deliberated, decides as follows:

FACTS AND PROCEDURE

The list of applicants and their representative is set out in the appended table.

The case originated in a number of applications against the Hellenic Republic lodged with the Court under Article 34 of the Convention (relevant details listed in the Annex of decision Mecja and Others v. Greece, [Committee] (dec.), no. 80083/17 and 13 others, 12 September 2019). The applicants’ complaints under Articles 3 and 13 of the Convention concerning the conditions of their detention and the lack of an effective remedy to that effect were communicated to the Greek Government (“the Government”). On 12 September 2019 the Court adopted the Mecja and Others decision, cited above, striking out the case from its list under Article 39 of the Convention, on the basis of a friendly settlement reached by the parties. The sums paid by the Government to the applicants in the context of the abovementioned friendly settlement are indicated in the appended table.

On 3 October 2023 the Court decided to reopen the proceedings in respect of all the applications joined in the Mecja and Others decision, cited above, as the applicants alleged that the sums set out in the friendly settlement declarations, signed by the parties, had not been paid by the Government because they had been set off against the State’s tax claims. They argued that the sums awarded should have been exempt from attachment.

Following the re-opening of the proceedings, the applicants informed the Court that, in fact, the sums referred to in the friendly settlement declarations signed by the parties had been paid in full as regards applications nos. 80083/17, 80094/17, 80148/17, 80352/17, 81179/17 and 81210/17. As regards application no. 81173/17, the sum of 5,700 euros (EUR) set out in the friendly settlement declaration had been paid after the deduction of EUR 216.06 on account of the applicant’s debt towards the State. The Government corroborated the abovementioned assertions made by the applicants.

THE LAW

In view of the similar complaints regarding the applicants’ conditions of detention and the absence of an effective remedy to that effect, the Court joined the present applications (nos. 80083/17, 80094/17, 80148/17, 80352/17, 81173/17, 81179/17 and 81210/17) with seven more applications and examined all of them in the decision of Mecja and Others, cited above. The Court now considers it necessary to disjoin applications nos. 80083/17, 80094/17, 80148/17, 80352/17, 81173/17, 81179/17 and 81210/17 from those remaining applications, and, having regard to the similar factual developments and procedural considerations, finds it appropriate to keep the applications listed in the appended table joined for the examination in the present single decision.

The Court observes that the Government paid to all of the applicants in the present case the sums set out in the initial friendly settlement declarations signed by the parties, as indicated in the attached table. The sums were paid in full, without any attachment being made to them, save for the applicant in application no. 81173/17 whose award of EUR 5,700 was reduced by less than four percent to cover his debt before the State. The amounts paid to the applicants in the present case, including in application no. 81173/17, are consistent with the amounts awarded in similar conditions-of-detention cases by the Court (see Boulmazat and Others v. Greece [Committee] (dec.), nos. 20985/20 and 76 others, 6 April 2003).

In view of the above, the Court considers that the matter has been resolved within the meaning of Article 37 § 1 (b) of the Convention and that respect for human rights as defined in the Convention and the Protocols thereto does not require it to continue the examination of the applications under Article 37 § 1 in fine.

Accordingly, the applications should be struck out of the list.

For these reasons, the Court, unanimously,

Disjoins applications nos. 80083/17, 80094/17, 80148/17, 80352/17, 81173/17, 81179/17 and 81210/17 from the others to which they were joined in Mecja and Others v. Greece, [Committee] (dec.), no. 80083/17 and 13 others, 12 September 2019 and decides to keep the applications listed in the appendix joined;

Decides to strike the applications out of its list of cases.

Done in English and notified in writing on 28 May 2025.

 Viktoriya Maradudina Georgios A. Serghides
 Acting Deputy Registrar President

APPENDIX

List of applications raising complaints under Articles 3 and 13 of the Convention

(conditions of detention and absence of an effective remedy to that effect)

[1] Plus any tax that may be chargeable to the applicants.