FOURTH SECTION
DECISION
Application no. 1573/11
Anthony PRITCHARD
against the United Kingdom
The European Court of Human Rights (Fourth Section), sitting on 18 March 2014 as a Chamber composed of
Ineta Ziemele, President,
Päivi Hirvelä,
Ledi Bianku,
Nona Tsotsoria,
Zdravka Kalaydjieva,
Paul Mahoney,
Faris Vehabović, judges,
and Fatoş Aracı, Deputy Section Registrar,
Having regard to the above application lodged on 20 December 2010,
Having regard to the formal declarations accepting a friendly settlement of the case,
Having deliberated, decides as follows:
FACTS AND PROCEDURE
1. The applicant, Mr Anthony Pritchard, is a British national, who was born in 1944 and lives in Wales. He was represented before the Court by Switalskis LLP, a firm of solicitors based in Rotherham.
2. The United Kingdom Government (“the Government”) were represented by their Agent, Ms R. Tomlinson, Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
3. The applicant complained under Articles 2 and 13 of the Convention that the Government had failed to carry out a full investigation into the death of his son, who was killed in Iraq while serving as a member of the Territorial Army.
4. On 24 and 29 January 2014 the Court received friendly settlement declarations signed by the parties under which the applicant agreed to waive any further claims against the United Kingdom in respect of the facts giving rise to this application against an undertaking by the Government in the following terms:
“1. The UK Government will meet with the Applicant (Mr Pritchard) at a date and venue to be agreed. The UK Government will be represented by an appropriate and properly briefed official from the Ministry of Defence who will be able to explain the production of the 2003 Learning Account of Dewi Pritchard’s death and who will be in a position to provide an explanation of the circumstances of Dewi Pritchard’s death and answer question the Applicant may have.
2. The UK Government will make the Learning Account available at least seven days in advance of the meeting referred to above for Mr Pritchard, Tracey Pritchard and Dewi Pritchard’s children and/or representatives of the Applicant’s law firm to review. Alternatively a copy of the Learning Account will be subject to the Applicant’s representatives and each member of the Pritchard family that is provided with the Learning Account entering into the confidentiality undertaking, which has been agreed by the Applicant and the Government, not to disseminate it or its contents any further.
3. The UK Government agrees to pay the Applicant £39,915.02 in respect of the costs and inconvenience in bringing the Application before the Court. Given the specific circumstances of this friendly settlement, this sum will be payable within ten working days from the date of notification of the decision taken by the Court to strike the case out of its list of cases. In the event of failure to pay this sum within ten days from the date of notification, the Government undertake to pay simple interest on it, from expiry of that period until settlement, at a rate equal to the marginal lending rate of the European Central bank during the default period plus three percentage points.
4.The UK Government and the Applicant agree to comply by these terms of settlement subject to the Court striking out the Application under Article 37 of the Convention.”
THE LAW
The Court takes note of the above friendly settlement reached between the parties. It is satisfied that the settlement is based on respect for human rights as defined in the Convention and its Protocols and finds no reasons to justify a continued examination of the application. In view of the above, it is appropriate to strike the case out of the list.
For these reasons, the Court unanimously
Decides to strike the application out of its list of cases in accordance with Article 39 of the Convention.
Fatoş AracıIneta Ziemele
Deputy RegistrarPresident
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