European Court of Human Rights

FIFTH SECTION

DECISION

Application no. 42923/04
by Petar Ivanov LAZAROV
against Bulgaria

The European Court of Human Rights (Fifth Section), sitting on 4 May 2010 as a Chamber composed of:

Peer Lorenzen, President,
Renate Jaeger,
Karel Jungwiert,
Rait Maruste,
Mark Villiger,
Mirjana Lazarova Trajkovska,
Zdravka Kalaydjieva, judges,
and Claudia Westerdiek, Section Registrar,

Having regard to the above application lodged on 24 November 2004,

Having regard to the formal declarations accepting a friendly settlement of the case,

Having deliberated, decides as follows:

PROCEDURE

The application was lodged by Mr Petar Ivanov Lazarov, a Bulgarian national who was born in 1973 and lives in the village of Kostievo. He was represented before the Court by Mr M. Neikov and Ms T. Riskova, lawyers practising in Plovdiv. The Bulgarian Government (“the Government”) were represented by their Agent, Ms M. Dimova, of the Ministry of Justice.

The applicant complained under Articles 6 § 1 and 13 of the Convention of the length of his criminal proceedings (from 1993 to 2004) and the lack of effective remedies in that regard.

On 15 October 2008 the Court communicated the application to the Government.

On 22 December 2008 and 20 January 2010 the Court received friendly settlement declarations signed by the parties under which the applicant agreed to waive any further claims against Bulgaria in respect of the facts giving rise to this application against an undertaking by the Government to pay him 1,800 euros. This sum, which was to cover any pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage as well as costs and expenses, would be converted into Bulgarian levs at the rate applicable on the date of payment and be free of any taxes that might be chargeable on the applicant. 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 this 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 parties agreed that this payment would constitute the final resolution of the case.

THE LAW

The Court takes note of the friendly settlement reached between the parties. It is satisfied that the settlement is based on respect for human rights as defined in the Convention and its Protocols and finds no public policy reasons to justify a continued examination of the application (Article 37 § 1 in fine of the Convention).

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.

Claudia Westerdiek Peer Lorenzen
Registrar President