THIRD SECTION
FINAL DECISION
Application no. 30358/03
by William Kurt TREPTOW
against Romania
The European Court of Human Rights (Third Section), sitting on
19 May 2009 as a Chamber composed of:
Josep Casadevall, President,
Corneliu Bîrsan,
Boštjan M. Zupančič,
Alvina Gyulumyan,
Egbert Myjer,
Ineta Ziemele,
Luis López Guerra, judges,
and Santiago Quesada, Section Registrar,
Having regard to the above application lodged on 10 September 2003,
Having regard to the partial decision of 20 May 2008,
Having deliberated, decides as follows:
THE FACTS
The applicant, Mr William Kurt Treptow, is an American national who was born in 1962 and lives in Acacia, United States of America. He also has Romanian nationality. The Romanian Government (“the Government”) are represented by their Agent, Mr Răzvan-Horaţiu Radu, of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The facts of the case, as submitted by the parties, may be summarised as follows.
On 11 September 2002 the applicant was arrested on charges of trafficking in human beings, sexual perversion and sexual corruption of minors.
In a decision of 11 December 2002 the District Court found the applicant guilty, sentenced him to seven years in prison and ordered him to pay damages to the victims. On 28 March 2003 the Iaşi Court of Appeal dismissed the appeals on cassation.
On 13, 16 and 17 December 2002 D.H. had been authorised by the president of the District Court to copy 194 pages from the file in order to prepare an appeal. D.H. was the partner of V.C. (one of the victims’ mother) and presented himself as V.C.’s representative. Some of those documents were photographs of the applicant in sexually explicit poses with various partners. They were published by newspapers and presented on television channels.
On 8 January 2003 the applicant’s counsel lodged a criminal complaint against V.C. and D.H. The prosecutor attached to the Iaşi Court of Appeal decided not to press charges on the grounds that D.H.’s intention had been to encourage other possible victims to testify and that he had not sought or gained any financial benefit from the publication of the material.
The applicant was released at the beginning of 2007 and left for the United States of America.
COMPLAINTS
1. Relying on Article 3 of the Convention, the applicant complained of overcrowding and poor sanitary conditions during his detention.
2. Under Articles 6 § 2 and 8 of the Convention, the applicant complained that important parts of the criminal file had been leaked to the media.
THE LAW
By letter dated 2 October 2008 the Government’s observations were sent to the applicant, who was requested to submit any observations together with any claims for just satisfaction in reply by 14 November 2008.
By letter dated 24 November 2008 sent by registered post, the applicant was notified that the period allowed for submission of his observations had expired on 14 November and that no extension of time had been requested. The applicant’s attention was drawn to Article 37 § 1 (a) of the Convention, which provides that the Court may strike a case out of its list of cases where the circumstances lead to the conclusion that the applicant does not intend to pursue the application. Likewise, a letter inviting the applicant to
hire counsel, dated 30 May 2008 and a reminder sent by the Registry on
24 July 2008 went unanswered.
However, no response has been received.
The Court notes that the last communication from the applicant dates from 14 March 2007.
The Court considers that, 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. Furthermore, in accordance with Article 37 § 1 in fine, the Court finds no special circumstances regarding respect for human rights as defined in the Convention and its Protocols which require the continued examination of the case. In view of the above, it is appropriate to strike the case out of the list.
For these reasons, the Court unanimously
Decides to strike the remainder of the application out of its list of cases.
Santiago QuesadaJosep Casadevall
RegistrarPresident
Full & Egal Universal Law Academy