Information Note on the Court’s case-law No.
December 1997
Tejedor García v. Spain - 25420/94
Judgment 16.12.1997
Article 6
Criminal proceedings
Article 6-1
Fair hearing
Criminal conviction secured despite fact that public prosecutor’s application – for an order setting aside a decision that no further action be taken – had been filed late: no violation
[This summary is extracted from the Court’s official reports (Series A or Reports of Judgments and Decisions). Its formatting and structure may therefore differ from the Case-Law Information Note summaries.]
I.SCOPE OF THE CASE
Court had no jurisdiction to consider complaint declared inadmissible by Commission.
II.ARTICLE 6 § 1 OF THE CONVENTION
A.Applicability
Recapitulation of case-law on concept of “charge” – Article 6 § 1 applicable.
B.Compliance
Recapitulation of case-law: in first place for national authorities to interpret domestic law.
Public prosecutor had had three days to appeal against investigating judge’s decision that no further action be taken – as case file had not contained any indication as to date public prosecutor had received case file, investigating judge had considered that public prosecutor’s application had been made in time – interpretation of Article 789 § 5 of Code of Criminal Procedure in circumstances where date of receipt could not be established as a matter of certainty was a matter for domestic courts – interpretation of national courts could not be described as arbitrary or unreasonable, or of such a nature as to taint fairness of proceedings – no issue arose concerning equality of arms.
Conclusion: no violation (eight votes to one).
© Council of Europe/European Court of Human Rights
This summary by the Registry does not bind the Court.
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