PARASKOV v. BULGARIA and 3 other applications

Published on 26 February 2024

THIRD SECTION

Application no. 6820/21
Dimitar Zaprev Paraskov against Bulgaria
and 3 other applications
(see appended list)
communicated on 7 February 2024

SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASES

1.  These four applications concern, respectively, four rallies organised by members – including the three applicants – of the United Macedonian Organisation Ilinden (“Ilinden”).

2.  Ilinden, an organisation which has so far been unable to obtain official registration, advocates the view that there exists an oppressed Macedonian minority in Bulgaria and seeks to protect its rights.

3.  The first rally was planned for 4 May 2019 in Blagoevgrad. It took place, but three police officers forced the applicant Mr Ivanov to place an Ilinden flag which he was holding in the trunk of a police car, and kept it there during the entire rally. The administrative courts then dismissed a claim for damages which Mr Ivanov brought in relation to that against the police, on the basis that the officers had acted lawfully.

4.  The second, third and fourth rallies were planned for 2 August 2020, 1 July 2021 and 2 August 2022 respectively, in the area Samuilova Krepost near Petrich. None of the three took place, because the mayor informed the organisers that the rallies would coincide with events planned by the municipality – or, in relation to the rally on 1 July 2021, by the local historical museum – at the same time and place. On each of those three occasions, the applicants sought judicial review, but the administrative courts refused to deal with their claims, holding that under the relevant legislation the mayor’s notifications, which could not be regarded as outright bans, were not amenable to judicial review.

5.  In each of the four applications, the applicants complain under Article 11 of the Convention – and in one application (no. 48647/21) also under Article 10 of the Convention – that the rallies organised by them had been unjustifiably interfered with.

6.  In three applications (nos. 48647/21, 17515/22 and 30511/23), they also complain under Article 13 of the Convention of the refusals of the administrative courts to deal with their claims for judicial review.

QUESTIONS TO THE PARTIES

1.  Has there been a breach of the applicants’ right to freedom of peaceful assembly, contrary to Article 11 of the Convention (see Stankov and the United Macedonian Organisation Ilinden v. Bulgaria, nos. 29221/95 and 29225/95, ECHR 2001-IX; United Macedonian Organisation Ilinden and Ivanov v. Bulgaria, no. 44079/98, 20 October 2005; Ivanov and Others v. Bulgaria, no. 46336/99, 24 November 2005; United Macedonian Organisation Ilinden and Ivanov v. Bulgaria (no. 2), no. 37586/04, 18 October 2011; Singartiyski and Others v. Bulgaria, no. 48284/07, 18 October 2011; and Kiril Ivanov v. Bulgaria, no. 17599/07, 11 January 2018), or, in application no. 48647/21, also of the applicant’s right to freedom of expression, contrary to Article 10 of the Convention?

2.  Did the applicants have at their disposal an effective domestic remedy in that respect, as required by Article 13 of the Convention (see, mutatis mutandis, Kiril Ivanov, cited above, §§ 58-60)?

APPENDIX

[1]  Mr Tilev says that he is a national of both Bulgaria and North Macedonia.