European Court of Human Rights

 

FOURTH SECTION

DECISION

Application no. 45334/06
Lyubcho Petrov TSOCHEV against Bulgaria
and 13 other applications
(see list appended)

The European Court of Human Rights (Fourth Section), sitting on 23 October 2012 as a Committee composed of:

          George Nicolaou, President,
          Ledi Bianku,
          Vincent A. De Gaetano, judges,
and Fatoş Aracı, Deputy Section Registrar,

Having regard to the appended applications, communicated as part of the grouped communication Tsochev and 15 other applications v. Bulgaria (no. 45334/06 and others),

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 appended table. Some of the applicants were legally represented. The legal representatives involved were Mr A. Atanasov, Ms G. Chernicherska, Mr K. Bakov, Mr V. Stoyanov. Mr M. Ekimdzhiev, Ms K. Boncheva, Mr D. Mitkov, Ms S. Vasileva, Ms S. Raycheva, Ms D. Tsoncheva and Mr D. Kolev. The Bulgarian Government (“the Government”) were represented by their Agent, Ms M. Dimova, 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 appended table.

On 26 March 2012 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 of the Convention concerning the lack of effective remedies in relation to the length of the proceedings.

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 sums, which will cover any and all damage, as well as costs and expenses, where applicable, plus any tax that may be chargeable, to be converted into the national currency of the respondent State at the rate applicable on the date 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. These payments would constitute the final resolution of the cases.

The Court takes note of the friendly settlements 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. 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 in accordance with Article 39 of the Convention.

          Fatoş Aracı                                                                 George Nicolaou
     Deputy Registrar                                                                   President




Appendix

 

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.	45334/06	31/10/2006	Lyubcho Petrov TSOCHEV 20/12/1950 Plovdiv	22/04/1999 - 18/05/2006 (date on which the first-instance court judgment became final)	Criminal proceedings for embezzlement	7 years (one level of jurisdiction)	Art. 6 § 1 (length of proceedings)   Art. 13 (lack of effective remedies in respect of length)	17 May 2012	20 September 2012	2,000
2.	48595/06	30/10/2006	Krasimir Borisov SLAVCHEV 19/10/1970 Plovdiv   Dimitar Asenov KOSTADINOV 03/10/1969 Plovdiv   Rashko Mitkov KOSTADINOV 04/08/1964 Plovdiv	07/09/1992 ratification of the Convention by Bulgaria (for the first and second applicant)   24/10/2000 (for the third applicant)   Until 26/05/2006 (discontinuation)	Criminal proceedings for theft	13 years and 8 months (one level of jurisdiction) for the first and second applicants   5 years and 7 months (one level of jurisdiction) for the third applicant	Art. 6 § 1 (length of proceedings)   Art. 13 (lack of effective remedies in respect of length)	23 May 2012	20 September 2012	4,200 for the first applicant   4,300 jointly to second and third applicants
3.	18539/07	11/04/2007	Atanas Ivanov TODOROV 06/07/1977 Stryama	11/07/1995 - 6/11/2006 (out of court agreement)	Criminal proceedings for theft	11 years and 3 months (one level of jurisdiction)	Art. 6 § 1 (length of proceedings)   Art. 13 (lack of effective remedies in respect of length)	21 May 2012	20 September 2012	2,900
4.	25115/07	02/05/2007	Velichko Grozdanov DIMITROV 02/11/1971 Ognyanovo	26/09/1996 - 2/11/2006	Criminal proceedings for rape	10 years and 1 month (two levels of jurisdiction)	Art. 6 § 1 (length of proceedings)   Art. 13 (lack of effective remedies in respect of length)	21 May 2012	20 September 2012	1,500
5.	55398/07	28/11/2007	Vasil Kamenov MIHAYLOV 25/02/1978 Kremikovtsi   Milcho Milchev KRASTEV 25/07/1976 Kremikovtsi	1/10/1996 - 4/06/2007	Criminal proceedings for murder	10 years and 8 months (three levels of jurisdiction)	Art. 6 § 1 (length of proceedings)   Art. 13 (lack of effective remedies in respect of length)	17 May 2012	20 September 2012	2,750 per applicant
6.	7835/08	12/12/2007	Orlin Todorov LILKOV 21/12/1958 Elin Pelin	1/10/2001 - 14/06/2007 (discontinuation)	Criminal proceedings for breach of official duties	5 years and 8 months (pre-trial proceedings)	Art. 6 § 1 (length of proceedings)	11 May 2012	20 September 2012	1,500
7.	7951/08	28/12/2007	Vasil Todorov VASILEV 07/08/1967 Sliven	28/04/2001 (date when officially informed of charges) - 9/7/2007	Criminal proceedings for breach of official duties	6 years and 2 months (three levels of jurisdiction)	Art. 6 § 1 (length of proceedings)	14 May 2012	20 September 2012	450
8.	12365/08	09/01/2008	Vasil Marinov KALCHEV 16/12/1972 Gurmazovo	19/04/1999 - 14/11/2007 (out of court agreement)	Criminal proceedings for theft	8 years and 6 months (one level of jurisdiction)	Art. 6 § 1 (length of proceedings)   Art. 13 (lack of effective remedies in respect of length)	22 May 2012	20 September 2012	2,500
9.	17291/08	04/02/2008	Ventsislav Stoyanov DINCHEV 01/07/1977 Pazardzhik	19/05/1999 - 29/02/2008 (out of court agreement)	Criminal proceedings for theft	8 years and 9 months (one level of jurisdiction)	Art. 6 § 1 (length of proceedings)   Art. 13 (lack of effective remedies in respect of length)	3 May 2012	20 September 2012	2,500
10.	19739/08	25/03/2008	Yuliy Krumov EFREMOV 21/07/1935 Sofia	19/11/1993 - 23/11/2007 (date on which the discontinuation decision entered into force)	Criminal proceedings for embezzlement	14 years (one level of jurisdiction)	Art. 6 § 1 (length of proceedings)   Art. 13 (lack of effective remedies in respect of length)	23 May 2012	20 September 2012	5,500
11.	20271/08	13/03/2008	Stanislav Ivanov KRASTEV 01/12/1975 Pazardzhik   Milan Ivanov KRASTEV 20/06/1970 Pazardzhik	23/07/1997 (first applicant)   3/11/1997 (second applicant)   Until: Pending as of 26/09/2008 (applicants’ last correspondence to the Court)	Criminal proceedings for theft	11 years and 2 months (one level of jurisdiction) for the first applicant   10 years and 10 months (one level of jurisdiction) for the second applicant	Art. 6 § 1 (length of proceedings)   Art. 13 (lack of effective remedies in respect of length)	15 May 2012	20 September 2012	2,500 jointly
12.	30315/08	21/05/2008	Stoyan Yordanov PETROV 24/09/1953 Sofia	30/04/1996 - 29/11/2007 (date on which the first-instance court judgment became final)	Criminal proceedings for fraud	11 years and 7 months (one level of jurisdiction)	Art. 6 § 1 (length of proceedings)   Art. 13 (lack of effective remedies in respect of length)	21 May 2012	20 September 2012	5,900
13.	30718/08	3/05/2008	Lilyana Petrova KRIVENCHEVA 25/10/1942 Plovdiv	04/04/1995 - 14/02/2008	Criminal proceedings for breach of official duties	12 years and 10 months (three levels of jurisdiction)	Art. 6 § 1 (length of proceedings)	17 May 2012	20 September 2012	4,200
14.	34003/08	27/05/2008	Kostadin Nikolov BAHCHEVANSKI 27/06/1941 Plovdiv	01/03/1994 - 27/12/2007	Criminal proceedings for issuing a false official document	13 years and 9 months (three levels of jurisdiction)	Art. 6 § 1 (length of proceedings)   Art. 13 (lack of effective remedies in respect of length)	8 May 2012	20 September 2012	3,500