Type: Judgment

Authority: European Authorities: European Court of human rights

Date: 04/08/2008

Subject: The applicant’s husband, together with two others, was accused of murdering a police officer in September 1995. In May 1997 Chişinău Regional Court acquitted all three suspects. On appeal a retrial was ordered. The applicant, whose husband had in the meantime been shot dead, asked for the case to be reheard in order to prove her husband’s innocence. Ultimately, the Moldovan courts found the applicant’s husband guilty as charged. Relying on Article 6 § 1 (right to a fair trial) of the European Convention on Human Rights, the applicant complained about the unfairness of her deceased husband’s re-trial. The European Court of Human Rights noted that it had serious reservations about a legal system which had allowed the trial and conviction of a deceased person, given the obvious inability of that person to defend himself. In any event, the Court considered that the domestic courts, in their final decisions, had accepted self-incriminating statements by the accused as “decisive evidence” but had ignored certain fundamental issues, such as the fact that the accused had an alibi for the presumed time of the murder. The Court therefore concluded that the proceedings against the applicant’s husband had been unfair as his conviction had not been sufficiently justified by the Moldovan courts. Accordingly, the Court held unanimously that there had been a violation of Article 6 § 1 of the Convention. As the applicant had not submitted any claim for just satisfaction, the Court made no such award.

Parties: Grădinar c/ Moldova

Classification: Justice - Art. 47 Fair trial, public hearing