European Court of Human Rights

FOURTH SECTION

DECISION

Applications nos. 15279/07, 15286/07, 15301/07, 15326/07, 15721/07, 15772/07, 15783/07, 15865/07, 15883/07, 15945/07 by Tudor PECIUL, Sergiu COJUHARI, Svetlana MOROZOV, Oleg NICOLAEV, Natalia ALEXEEV, Mihail RUSU, Valerii BUDEI, Sergiu MUNTEAN, Natalia LOPATIUC and Vasile PARA

against Moldova

The European Court of Human Rights (Fourth Section), sitting on 7 September 2010 as a Chamber composed of:

Nicolas Bratza, President,
Lech Garlicki,
Giovanni Bonello,
Ljiljana Mijović,
Ján Šikuta,
Ledi Bianku,
Nebojša Vučinić, judges,
and Fatoş Aracı, Deputy Section Registrar,

Having regard to the above applications lodged on 15 November 2005, 2 December 2005 and 11 February 2006,

Having regard to the decision to communicate these applications following the adoption of the pilot judgment in the case of Olaru and others (Olaru and Others v. Moldova, nos. 476/07, 22539/05, 17911/08 and 13136/07, 28 July 2009),

Having regard to the friendly settlements agreements in the cases,

Having deliberated, decides as follows:

PROCEDURE

The applications were lodged by Mr Tudor Peciul, Mr Sergiu Cojuhari, Mrs Svetlana Morozova, Mr Oleg Nicolaev, Mrs Natalia Alexeev, Mr Mihail Rusu, Mr Valerii Budei, Mr Sergiu Muntean, Mrs Natalia Lopatiuc and Mr Vasile Para, Moldovan nationals who were born in 1970, 1956, 1966, 1967, 1967, 1969, 1969, 1967, 1961, 1963 respectively and live in Chişinău. The Moldovan Government (“the Government”) were represented by their Agent, Mr V. Grosu.

As with the applicants in the pilot judgment of Olaru and others (cited above), the applicants in the instant cases complained of a breach of their rights guaranteed by Article 6 of the Convention and under Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 as a result of the authorities' failure to comply with final judicial decisions delivered by domestic courts in their favour.

On 6 July 2010 the Government informed the Court that the final judgments in favour of the applicants had been enforced between December 2007 and February 2008. The Government also gave notice that the parties had reached friendly settlement of the cases.

On 19 July 2010 the Court received friendly settlement agreements signed by the parties under which the applicants agreed to waive any further claims against Moldova in respect of the facts giving rise to these applications against an undertaking by the Government to pay each of them 900 euros to cover any non-pecuniary damage as well as costs and expenses. This amount would be converted into Moldovan lei at the rate applicable on the date of payment, and would be free of any taxes that may be applicable. It would be payable within three months from the date of notification of the decision taken by the Court pursuant to Article 37 § 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights. In the event of failure to pay the sum within the said three-month period, the Government undertook to pay simple interest on it, from expiry of that period until settlement, at a rate equal to the marginal lending rate of the European Central Bank during the default period plus three percentage points. The payment would constitute the final resolution of the cases.

THE LAW

The Court takes note of the friendly settlements reached between the parties (see, in this connection, the above-mentioned Olaru and others pilot judgment, § 61 in fine). It is satisfied that the settlements are based on respect for human rights as defined in the Convention and its Protocols and finds no reasons to justify a continued examination of the applications (Article 37 § 1 in fine of the Convention).

In view of the above, it is appropriate to strike the cases out of the list.

As regards the question of implementation of the Government's undertakings, the Committee of Ministers remains competent to supervise this matter in accordance with Article 46 of the Convention (see the Committee's decisions of 3 June 2010 concerning the implementation of the Olaru and others judgment, CM/Del/Dec(2010)1086).

For these reasons, the Court unanimously

Decides to join the applications;

Decides to strike the applications out of its list of cases.

Fatoş Aracı Nicolas Bratza
Deputy Registrar President