Communicated on 5 May 2017
FIFTH SECTION
Applications nos. 10487/16 and 10502/16
Gordana SAVIC
against Austria
lodged on 15 February 2016
SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE
The applications concern complaints by the applicant of an alleged violation of her right not to incriminate herself under Article 6 §§ 1 and 2 of the Convention. In accordance with section 50 § 4 of the Gambling Act (Glücksspielgesetz), a person holding gambling devices in readiness (bereithalten) is under the legal obligation to provide the authorities with information thereof. The applicant, who manages several bars where gambling devices were set up, refused to provide information, as in her view, she could have been prosecuted for aiding and abetting illegal gambling if she had done so. She was fined 1,000 euros each at two different occasions for her failure to comply with the above duty to provide information. The Administrative Court (Verwaltungsgerichtshof) dismissed her appeals, arguing that she could in fact not have been prosecuted for running the gambling devices.
QUESTIONS tO THE PARTIES
1. Was Article 6 § 1 of the Convention under its criminal head applicable to the proceedings in the present cases?
2. Did the applicant in the present cases have the right to remain silent, as guaranteed by Article 6 § 1 of the Convention? Could she have been prosecuted for aiding and abetting illegal gambling or other criminal offences, if she had given the information sought and thereby incriminated herself?
Full & Egal Universal Law Academy