European Court of Human Rights

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URL: http://www.bailii.org/eu/cases/ECHR/2012/878.html
Cite as: [2012] ECHR 878

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FOURTH SECTION

DECISION

Application no. 15077/06
Marieta Dimova KARADIMOVA against Bulgaria
and 10 other applications
(see list appended)

The European Court of Human Rights (Fourth Section), sitting on 10 May 2012 as a Committee composed of:

Päivi Hirvelä, President,
Ledi Bianku,
Nebojša Vučinić, judges,
and Fatoş Aracı, Deputy Section Registrar,

Having regard to the applications listed in the table below, communicated as part of the group of Karadimova (II) and 12 other applications (no. 15077/06 and others),

Having regard to the pilot judgment in the cases of Dimitrov and Hamanov v. Bulgaria, nos. 48059/06 and 2708/09, § 133, 10 May 2011,

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

Having deliberated, decides as follows:

PROCEDURE

The applicants are Bulgarian nationals whose names and dates of birth are specified in the table below. Some of the applicants were legally represented. The legal representatives involved were Ms K. Yaneva, Mr A. Atanasov, Ms G. Chernicherska, Mr M. Ekimdzhiev, Ms K. Boncheva, Mr Z. Vasilev, Ms T. Andonova and Mr Y. Yordanov. The Bulgarian Government (“the Government”) were represented by their Agent, Ms M. Kotzeva, of the Ministry of Justice.

The essential information as to the length of the proceedings in which the applicants were involved is indicated in the attached table.

On 19 September 2011 the President of the Fourth Section decided to communicate the applicants’ complaints under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention concerning the length of criminal proceedings and in some cases the complaints under Article 13 concerning the lack of effective remedies in relation to the length.

THE LAW

The Court considers that in accordance with Rule 42 § 1 of the Rules of Court, the applications should be joined, given their common legal background.

On various dates (see table below) the Court received friendly settlement declarations signed by the parties under which the applicants agreed to waive any further claims against Bulgaria in respect of the facts giving rise to these applications against an undertaking by the Government to pay them ex gratia sums, which will cover any and all damage, as well as costs and expenses, and would be free of any taxes that may be applicable, to be converted into the national currency of the respondent State at the rate applicable on the day of payment. The sums 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 these sums within the said three-month period, the Government undertook to pay simple interest on them 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. This payment would constitute the final resolution of the cases.

The Court takes note of the friendly settlement reached between the parties. It is satisfied that the settlements are based on respect for human rights as defined in the Convention and its Protocols and finds no reason 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.

For these reasons, the Court unanimously

Decides to join the applications;

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

Fatoş Aracı Päivi Hirvelä
Deputy Registrar President

No.	Application no.	Lodged on	Applicant’s name, year of birth, place of residence	Beginning and end of the domestic proceedings	Subject matter of domestic proceedings	Length of proceedings and instances concerned	Communicated complaints	Date of applicant friendly settlement declaration	Date of Government’s friendly settlement declaration	Friendly settlement sums (in euros)
1.	15077/06	02/03/2006	Marieta Dimova KARADIMOVA 1964 Karlovo	February 1999 – 02/02/2006 (the date on which the Regional Court’s judgment of 17/01/2006 entered into force)	Criminal proceedings for a breach of official duties of an enforcement judge	7 years (3 levels of jurisdiction)	Art. 6 § 1 (length of proceedings)	15 November 1011	28 March 2012	1,200
2.	29896/06	13/07/2006	Edouard Mint KAYN 1973 Sofia	29/03/1994 – 15/05/2006	Criminal proceedings for hostage-taking	12 years and 1 month (2 levels of jurisdiction)	Art. 6 § 1 (length of proceedings) Art. 13 (lack of effective remedies in respect of length)	9 October 2011	30 March 2012	6,100
3.	35480/06	17/08/2006	Dimitur Atanasov KRASTEV 1967 S. Stryama	18/04/1995 – 20/02/2006	Criminal proceedings for a theft	10 years and 10 months (1 level of jurisdiction)	Art. 6 § 1 (length of proceedings) Art. 13 (lack of effective remedies in respect of length)	17 November 2011	28 March 2012	4,500
4.	36779/06	30/08/2006	Andon Marinov OGNYANOV 1978 Stryama	March 1997 – 14/03/2006	Criminal proceedings for a theft	9 years (1 level of jurisdiction)	Art. 6 § 1 (length of proceedings) Art. 13 (lack of effective remedies in respect of length)	17 November 2011	28 March 2012	4,100
5.	36785/06	06/09/2006	Roumen Hristov HRISTOV 1953 Varna Pavlina Mincheva HRISTOVA 1953 Varna Zhasmina Mincheva BONOVA 1957 Varna	August 1995 (for the first applicant) and 23/04/1999 (for the second and third applicants) – 13/03/2007 (date of the final judgment as indicated by the applicants)	Criminal proceedings for a financial fraud	11 years and 6 months for the first applicant and 7 years and 10 months for the second and third applicants (3 levels of jurisdiction)	Art. 6 § 1 (length of proceedings) Art. 13 (lack of effective remedies in respect of length)	17 November 2011	28 March 2012	4,100 (jointly to first and second applicant) 1,200 (third applicant)
6.	43648/06	19/10/2006	Maria Metodieva ABRASHEVA 1964 Plovdiv	05/11/1999 – 16/10/2006	Criminal proceedings for death as a result of alleged medical negligence	6 years and 11 months (2 levels of jurisdiction)	Art. 6 § 1 (length of proceedings) Art. 13 (lack of effective remedies in respect of length)	19 October 2011	28 March 2012	2,500
7.	178/07	20/12/2006	Georgi Dobrev DOBREV 1969 Plovdiv	29/10/1996 – 26/06/2006 (the date of outgoing stamp of the Regional Public Prosecutor’s decision to terminate the proceedings plus 7 days for lodging an appeal against it; no proof presented as to the date on which the decision was served on the applicant)	Criminal proceedings for a breach of official duties of bank officers	9 years and 7 months (1 level of jurisdiction)	Art. 6 § 1 (length of proceedings) Art. 13 (lack of effective remedies in respect of length)	17 November 2011	28 March 2012	5,000
8.	9509/07	28/11/2006	Yanko Zdravkov ANGELOV 1978 Plovdiv	25/11/1997 – 09/06/2006	Criminal proceedings for a theft	8 years and 6 months (1 level of jurisdiction)	Art. 6 § 1 (length of proceedings)	9 November 2011	28 March 2012	5,300
9.	17653/07	29/03/2007	Rangel Vasilev ILIEV 1961 S. Voyvodinovo	28/08/1998 (the date of the applicant’s arrest) – 06/12/2006	Criminal proceedings for a fraud and infliction of a bodily harm as a result of careless driving	8 years and 3 months (1 level of jurisdiction)	Art. 6 § 1 (length of proceedings) Art. 13 (lack of effective remedies in respect of length)	11 October 2011	28 March 2012	3,000
10.	18788/07	05/04/2007	Anyo Yordanov AVRAMOV 1963 Gorna Oryahovitsa Petar Milkov BAROV 1969 Ihtiman Nayden Dimitrov NEDEV 1963 Gorna Oryahovitsa Petar Minchev PENKOV 1968 S. Dzhulyunitsa Georgi Mihaylov BOZHILOV 1969 Ihtiman Vladimir Dimitrov KOPRIVAROV 1971 Ihtiman Plamen Vladimirov ALEKSOV 1970 Ihtiman	Beginning of the proceedings – 20/01/1995 for the first applicant; 16/05/1995 for the second applicant; 27/01/1995 for the third and fourth applicants; 19/01/1995 for the fifth and sixth applicants; and on an unspecified date in 1995 for the seventh applicant End of proceedings in respect of all applicants – 21/10/2006	Criminal proceedings for several robberies and thefts	11 years and 9 months in respect of the first, fifth and sixth applicants, 11 years and 8 months in respect of the third and fourth applicants, 11 years and 4 months in respect of the second applicant and about 11 years in respect of the seventh applicant (1 level of jurisdiction)	Art. 6 § 1 (length of proceedings)	11 October 2011	28 March 2012	3,100 per applicant
11	19260/07	27/04/2007	Krasimir MIRCHEV 1968 Gabrovo	25/06/1997 – 06/11/2006	Criminal proceedings for counterfeit of alcohol excise labels	9 years and 4 months (3 levels of jurisdiction)	Art. 6 § 1 (length of proceedings)	18 October 2011	28 March 2012	2,400