FIFTH SECTION
DECISION
Application no. 47515/13
Oleksandr Oleksiyovych SHAKHOV
against Ukraine
The European Court of Human Rights (Fifth Section), sitting on 14 December 2023 as a Committee composed of:
Mārtiņš Mits, President,
Kateřina Šimáčková,
Mykola Gnatovskyy, judges,
and Viktoriya Maradudina, Acting Deputy Section Registrar,
Having regard to the above application lodged on 8 July 2013,
Having deliberated, decides as follows:
FACTS AND PROCEDURE
The applicant, Mr Oleksandr Oleksiyovych Shakhov, was born in 1971.
The applicant was represented by Mr V.V. Grytsyuk, a lawyer practising in Kyiv.
The applicant’s complaints under Article 5 § 3 of the Convention concerning the unjustifiably lengthy detention and under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention concerning the unreasonable length of the criminal proceedings against him were communicated to the Ukrainian Government (“the Government”), which submitted observations on the admissibility and merits.
Having been invited to submit comments on the Government’s observations, in May 2023 the applicant’s representative submitted that he had not been in contact with the applicant since June 2016, that he had had no information about the applicant’s whereabouts and that the applicant himself had never contacted him. In the light of that information, the Government argued that the case should be struck out owing to the absence of communication between the applicant and his representative. Having been invited to do so, the applicant’s lawyer did not comment of that argument of the Government.
THE LAW
In these circumstances, the applicant may be regarded as no longer wishing to pursue his application, within the meaning of Article 37 § 1 (a) of the Convention (see V.M. and Others v. Belgium (striking out) [GC], no. 60125/11, 17 November 2016). Furthermore, in accordance with Article 37 § 1 in fine, there are no special circumstances regarding respect for human rights as defined in the Convention and its Protocols which require the continued examination of the case.
Accordingly, the case should be struck out of the list.
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 18 January 2024.
Viktoriya Maradudina Mārtiņš Mits
Acting Deputy Registrar President