FIRST SECTION
DECISION
Application no. 9152/23
Miroslav SKUBAN
against Slovakia
The European Court of Human Rights (First Section), sitting on 23 January 2025 as a Committee composed of:
Erik Wennerström, President,
Georgios A. Serghides,
Alain Chablais, judges,
and Viktoriya Maradudina, Acting Deputy Section Registrar,
Having regard to the above application lodged on 16 February 2023,
Having deliberated, decides as follows:
FACTS AND PROCEDURE
The applicant, Mr Miroslav Skuban, was born in 1989. He was represented by Mr M. Kuzma, a lawyer practising in Košice.
The applicant’s complaints characterised under Articles 3, 8 and 13 of the Convention concerning (i) the practice of submitting him to “thorough strip searches” (dôkladná osobná prehliadka) in the course of his detention on remand and for the service of a prison sentence and (ii) the existence of any effective domestic remedies in that respect were communicated to the Government of the Slovak Republic (“the Government”).
On 23 September 2024 the applicant’s representative informed the Registry that on 10 September 2024 the applicant had died. In a submission of 5 November 2024, he added that a certain Ms Kubincová, born in 1993, wished to pursue the application in the late applicant’s stead. A declaration signed by Ms Kubincová was attached in which she stated that she had been a close relative of the applicant, that she had frequently visited him in prison and that he had given her a universal power of attorney to act on his behalf. Moreover, they had been in frequent contact by telephone and by correspondence and he had received numerous packages from her.
In response, the Government objected that there was no evidence that Ms Kubincová was close to the applicant in terms of the Court’s case-law and that the nature of his complaints had been purely personal.
THE LAW
The Court notes that, beyond the above allegations, nothing has been presented to show that Ms Kubincová was the next of kin or heir of the applicant or that she otherwise had sufficient interest in the case within the meaning of the Court’s case-law (see, for example, Centre for Legal Resources on behalf of Valentin Câmpeanu v. Romania [GC], no. 47848/08, § 97, ECHR 2014, with further references).
At the same time, the Court has established no consideration of respect for human rights as defined in the Convention and the Protocols thereto to continue the examination of the application (contrast with Paposhvili v. Belgium [GC], no. 41738/10, §§ 129-33, 13 December 2016).
In these circumstances the Court finds that it is no longer justified to continue the examination of the application pursuant to Article 37 § 1 (c) of the Convention. 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 13 February 2025.
Viktoriya Maradudina Erik Wennerström
Acting Deputy Registrar President