Information Note on the Court’s case-law No. 2
January 1999
Tsavachidis v. Greece [GC] - 28802/95
Judgment 21.1.1999
Article 8
Article 8-1
Respect for private life
Alleged secret surveillance of Jehovah’s Witnesses: struck out
Article 9
Article 9-1
Freedom of religion
Alleged secret surveillance of Jehovah’s Witnesses: struck out
Article 37
Article 37-1
Striking out applications
Alleged secret surveillance of Jehovah’s Witnesses: struck out
Facts: The applicant, a Greek national, was born in 1941 and lives at Kilkis in Greece. He is a Jehovah’s Witness. He was charged with having opened a place of worship without the necessary permission from the local church authorities and the Minister of Education and Religious Affairs and was committed for trial at the Kilkis Criminal Court. A week before the trial on 7 April, the defence learned that an anonymous report dated 7 March 1993 and bearing the words “Highly confidential” – containing detailed information about the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ activities and naming the applicant as their leader – had been placed in the case file. At the beginning of the trial the applicant challenged the validity of the indictment, on the ground that the report could not be used as evidence against him as it was unsigned. The court dismissed the objection but decided not to admit the report in evidence as it was anonymous, and acquitted the applicant on the same day. The Kilkis public prosecutor refused requests by the applicant to send him the original report so that it could be subjected to forensic examination and to open an inquiry in order to determine who had written it.
On 4 November 1998 the Court received from the Agent of the Government the text of a friendly settlement concluded by the Government and the applicant, under which the Government undertook to pay the applicant 1,500,000 drachmas and to state that “the Jehovah’s Witnesses are not subject to secret surveillance on account of their religious beliefs and will never be subject such surveillance in the future”. The applicant’s lawyer had confirmed the agreement.
The applicant complained that the Greek intelligence services kept him under surveillance on account of his religious beliefs. He relied on Articles 8 (right to respect for private life), 9 (right to freedom of religion) and 11 (right to freedom of association) of the European Convention on Human Rights, taken individually or together with Article 14 (prohibition of discrimination).
Grounds for decision: The Court took formal note of the agreement reached by the Government and the applicant and noted also that the agreement afforded the applicant satisfaction. It pointed out that in a number of earlier cases it had had to consider systems of secret surveillance in States other than Greece and to ascertain, under Article 8 of the Convention, that there were adequate and effective safeguards against abuses of such systems. Furthermore, in the cases of Kokkinakis v. Greece and Manoussakis and Others v. Greece – in which the facts had, however, been different from those of the instant case – the Court had had to rule under Article 9 of the Convention on the application of the relevant Greek legislation to the Jehovah’s Witnesses. In so doing, it had clarified the nature and extent of the Contracting States’ obligations in that regard. It followed that the case should be struck out of the list.
© Council of Europe/European Court of Human Rights
This summary by the Registry does not bind the Court.
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