European Court of Human Rights
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URL: http://www.bailii.org/eu/cases/ECHR/2010/1708.html
Cite as: [2010] ECHR 1708
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FIRST SECTION
DECISION
Application no.
22785/07
by Anatoliy Yuryevich MARTYNOV
against Russia
The European Court of Human Rights (First Section), sitting on 14 October 2010 as a Chamber composed of:
Christos Rozakis, President,
Nina
Vajić,
Anatoly Kovler,
Elisabeth
Steiner,
Khanlar Hajiyev,
Giorgio
Malinverni,
George Nicolaou, judges,
and Søren
Nielsen, Registrar,
Having regard to the above application lodged on 2 April 2007,
Having deliberated, decides as follows:
THE FACTS
The application was lodged by Mr Anatoliy Yuryevich Martynov, a Ukrainian national who was born in 1977 and lives in Moscow. He is represented before the Court by Mr D. Salukvadze, a lawyer practising in Moscow. The respondent Government (“the Government”) were represented by Mr G. Matyushkin, Representative of the Russian Federation at the European Court of Human Rights.
The facts of the case, as submitted by the parties, may be summarised as follows.
On 23 March 2005 the criminal proceedings were instituted against the applicant on suspicion of smuggling. The money was appended to the criminal case as physical evidence.
On 21 July 2006 the Golovinskiy District Court of Moscow convicted the applicant of smuggling under Article 188 § 1 of the Criminal Code and sentenced him to a fine. As regards the money, the court held as follows:
“Physical evidence – USD [...]... – shall be reverted to the State ...”
On 2 October 2006 the Moscow City Court upheld the judgment on appeal.
On 7 February 2008 the Presidium of the Moscow City Court quashed the judgment of 21 July 2006 and the appeal decision of 2 October 2006 in the part concerning the forfeiture of money, by way of supervisory review, and remitted the case for a fresh examination.
On 11 March 2008 the Golovonskiy District Court of Moscow obliged the Ministry of Finance to return the forfeited money to the applicant.
COMPLAINT
The applicant complained, inter alia, under Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 to the Convention that the forfeiture of his money had had no basis in the domestic law.
THE LAW
On 1 February 2010 the Government informed the Court of the quashing the judgment of 21 July 2006, as upheld on appeal on 2 October 2006, by way of supervisory review on 7 February 2008, and the decision of 11 March 2008 obliging the Ministry of Finance to return the forfeited money to the applicant. They suggested that the application be struck off the list under Article 37 § 1 (b) of the Convention.
The Government's observations were forwarded to the applicant, who was invited to submit his own observations. No reply was received to the Registry's letter.
By letter dated 16 June 2010, sent by registered post, the applicant was notified that the period allowed for submission of his observations had expired on 9 April 2010 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. No response followed.
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 application out of its list of cases.
Søren Nielsen Christos Rozakis
Registrar President
