European Court of Human Rights

SECOND SECTION

DECISION

Application no. 8243/08
Ziya BAKAL and Others
against Turkey

The European Court of Human Rights (Second Section), sitting on 5 June 2012 as a Committee composed of:

              Isabelle Berro-Lefèvre, President,
              Guido Raimondi,
              Helen Keller, judges,
and Françoise Elens-Passos, Deputy Section Registrar,

Having regard to the above application lodged on 15 February 2008,

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

Having deliberated, decides as follows:

PROCEDURE

The applicants, Mr Ziya Bakal, Mr Hakan Bakal and Ms Hülya Özak, are Turkish nationals who were born in 1933, 1962 and 1968 respectively. They live in Istanbul and are represented by Mr Y. Korun, a lawyer practising in Istanbul. The Turkish Government (“the Government”) were represented by their Agent.

On 1 March 2010 the Court decided to communicate the application to the respondent Government under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention as regards the length of judicial proceedings.

By letter of 22 February 2012 the Government informed the Court that they proposed to make a declaration with a view to resolving the issue raised by the application. They acknowledged a violation of the applicants’ right under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention on account of the excessive length of the domestic proceedings. They also undertook to pay each of the applicants EUR 4,500 (four thousand five hundred) euros to cover any pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage as well as any tax that may be chargeable. The payment would be effected within a period of three months from the date of notification of the decision taken by the Court. In the event of failure to pay within that period, the Government undertook to pay simple interest on it, from the 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. They further requested the Court to strike out the application from its list of cases in accordance with Article 37 of the Convention.

By a letter of 5 April 2012 the applicants’ lawyer informed the Court that his clients had agreed to the terms of the Government’s declaration and invited the Court to proceed with the examination of the Government’s request and to strike the case out of its list of cases.

THE LAW

The Court considers that the applicants’ express agreement to the terms of the declaration made by the Government can be considered as an implied friendly settlement between the parties.

It therefore 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 reasons to justify a continued examination of the application.

In view of the above, it is appropriate to strike the case out of the list pursuant to Article 39 of the Convention.

For these reasons, the Court unanimously

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

              Françoise Elens-Passos              Isabelle Berro-Lefèvre
              Deputy Registrar              President