Molla Sali v. Greece (relinquishment)

Information Note on the Court’s case-law 208

June 2017

Molla Sali v. Greece (relinquishment) - 20452/14

Article 6

Civil proceedings

Article 6-1

Access to court

Fair hearing

Application of Islamic law (sharia) in litigation concerning succession to estate of Greek Muslim: relinquishment in favour of the Grand Chamber

On the death of her husband the applicant inherited his entire estate under the terms of a will drawn up by her late husband before a notary. The deceased’s two sisters contested the will on the grounds that their brother had belonged to the Muslim community and that all matters relating to his estate were therefore subject to Islamic religious law and to the jurisdiction of the mufti rather than to the provisions of the Greek Civil Code. They relied in particular on the 1920 Treaty of Sèvres and the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, which provided for Islamic customs and Islamic religious law to be applied to Greek nationals who were Muslims.

Following the remittal of the case by the Court of Cassation, the Court of Appeal held in December 2015 that the law applicable to the deceased’s estate was Islamic religious law and that the public will in question did not produce any legal effects. The applicant appealed against that judgment on points of law.

Relying on Article 6 § 1, taken alone and in conjunction with Article 14 of the Convention, the applicant complains of the application to her inheritance dispute of Sharia law rather than the ordinary law applicable to all Greek citizens, despite the fact that her husband’s will was drawn up in accordance with the provisions of the Greek Civil Code. She also alleges that she was subjected to a difference in treatment on grounds of religion.

Under Article 1 of Protocol No. 1, the applicant also argues that, by applying Islamic religious law rather than Greek civil law to her husband’s will, the Court of Cassation deprived her of three-quarters of her inheritance.

On 6 June 2017, at the applicant’s request, the Chamber to which the case had been assigned relinquished jurisdiction in favour of the Grand Chamber.

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This summary by the Registry does not bind the Court.

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