FIFTH SECTION
DECISION
Application no. 38991/13
Sergey Mikhaylovich SERGIYENKO
against Ukraine
The European Court of Human Rights (Fifth Section), sitting on 20 May 2021 as a Committee composed of:
Stéphanie Mourou-Vikström, President,
Jovan Ilievski,
Mattias Guyomar, judges,
and Viktoriya Maradudina, Acting Deputy Section Registrar,
Having regard to the above application lodged on 5 June 2013,
Having deliberated, decides as follows:
FACTS AND PROCEDURE
The applicant, Mr Sergey Mikhaylovich Sergiyenko, was born in 1960.
On 16 July 2014 the applicant’s complaints under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention concerning the excessive length of the proceedings related to the death of his daughter in a traffic accident were communicated to the Ukrainian Government (“the Government”). The applicant supported his application with an indictment notice of 16 February 2009 from which it followed that the proceedings into the accident had been instituted on 2 October 2008. No further information related to the proceeding was provided by the applicant.
On 5 November 2014 the Government informed the Court that they could not submit their observations because it was impossible to obtain copies of the necessary documents located in the Luhansk region – on the territory outside the Government’s control.
The Court notes that at the time of submission of the present application the applicant lived in the territory currently outside the control of the Government of Ukraine. As the Ukrainian postal services are not operating on those territories, it has been impossible for the Court to establish contact with the applicant by sending mail. In particular, the applicant did not reply to the Court’s communication letter of 16 July 2014, whereby he was asked to inform the Court of his e-mail address. Other attempts to contact the applicant, notably by the telephone number indicated in the application form, were unsuccessful. In the absence of any other contact information (alternative postal addresses, e-mail addresses, etc.), the Court has no possibility to reach the applicant. Moreover, the Court observes that it has not received any correspondence from the applicant since the introduction of the application.
THE LAW
The Court observes that it has unsuccessfully tried to communicate with the applicant. It recalls that, pursuant to Rule 47 § 7 of the Rules of Court, “applicants shall keep the Court informed of any change of address and of all circumstances relevant to the application”. Under that Rule, it is incumbent on the applicant to provide at least a minimum of information enabling the Court to conduct correspondence with him and to proceed with his petition.
In the present case, the applicant failed to comply with the Court’s request of 16 July 2014. He did not provide an email or a phone number or a provisional address through which communication with him could be effected. Thus, it was impossible for the Court to continue the examination of his case (see Krutov v. Russia (dec.), no. 25260/02, 5 January 2007).
In the light of the foregoing, given that the complaints raised by the applicant are the subject of well-established case-law, given the absence of relevant information and documents related to the proceedings complained of and in the absence of any special circumstances regarding respect for the rights guaranteed by the Convention and the Protocols thereto, the Court, in accordance with Article 37 § 1 (a) of the Convention, considers that it is no longer justified to continue the examination of the application (see, mutatis mutandis, Nekhoroshkin v. Ukraine (dec.) [Committee], no. 53548/09, 24 October 2019; and Yuldashev and Others v. Russia and Ukraine (dec.) [Committee], no. 35139/14 and 326 other applications, 5 May 2020).
Accordingly, the case should be struck out of the list.
This being so, the Court recalls that it may decide to restore an application to its list of cases if it considers that the circumstances justify such a course (article 37 § 2 of the Convention).
For these reasons, the Court, unanimously,
Decides to strike the application out of its list of cases.
Done in English and notified in writing on 10 June 2021.
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Viktoriya MaradudinaStéphanie Mourou-Vikström
Acting Deputy RegistrarPresident
Full & Egal Universal Law Academy