Grand Chamber – There was insufficient evidence that the questioning by security police in the circumstances: ‘should be regarded as a form of ‘pressure’, ‘intimidation’ or ‘harassment’ which might have induced the applicants to withdraw or modify their application or hindered them in any other way in the exercise of their right of individual petition.’
The Court reiterated: ‘it is of the utmost importance for the effective operation of the system of individual petition instituted by article 34 of the Convention that applicants or potential applicants are able to communicate freely with the court without being subjected to any form of pressure from the authorities to withdraw or modify their complaints.
The word ‘pressure’ must be taken to cover not only direct coercion and flagrant acts of intimidation of applicants or their families or legal representatives but also other improper indirect acts or contacts designed to dissuade or discourage them from pursuing a Convention remedy. Whether or not contacts between the authorities and an applicant or potential applicant amount to unacceptable practices from the standpoint of article 34 must be determined in the light of the particular circumstances in issue.’
Judges:
Luzius Wildhaber P
Citations:
[2007] ECHR 16, [2007] ECHR 325, 60654/00
Links:
Statutes:
European Convention on Human Rights
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Citing:
See Also – Sisojeva And Others v Latvia ECHR 16-Jun-2005
ECHR Judgment (Merits and Just Satisfaction) – Violation of Art. 8; No violation of Art. 34; Non-pecuniary damage – financial award; Costs and expenses – claim rejected. . .
Cited by:
Cited – Grasso v Naik (Twenty-One Irregular Divorces) FD 8-Nov-2017
Deceit in address avoided divorce petitions
The Queen’s Proctor applied to have set aside as fraudulent 21 petitions for divorce. It was said that false addresses had been used in order to give the court the appearance that it had jurisdiction.
Held: The decrees obtained by fraud were . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Human Rights
Updated: 01 April 2022; Ref: scu.598810