Type: Judgment

Authority: European Authorities: European Court of human rights

Date: 11/04/2008

Subject: The applicant, Arkadiusz Demski, is a Polish national who was born in 1971 and lives in Głogów (Poland). In July 2001 he was convicted of raping a 17-year-old girl, M.H., and sentenced to four years’ imprisonment. The case concerned the applicant’s complaint that he was not able to examine the main witness, M.H., the victim, in the criminal proceedings against him. He relied on Article 6 §§ 1 and 3 (d) (right to a fair trial and to obtain attendance and examination of witnesses). The Court considered that Mr Demski’s conviction had been to a decisive extent based on the depositions of M.H. whom he had had no opportunity to examine or to have examined either during the investigation or at the trial. M.H. was residing abroad but the authorities failed to make every reasonable effort to determine her actual address in order to obtain her attendance at the trial. However, it could not be said that her whereabouts were unknown or that she sought ways to avoid a confrontation with the defendants. Noting that special features of criminal proceedings concerning rape might require balancing the needs of the defence against those of witnesses or victims called upon to testify, the Court observed that arrangements could in any event have been made to allow M.H. to give evidence in a manner which would have spared her the ordeal of an adversarial procedure while respecting the rights of the defence. The Court concluded unanimously that there had been a violation of Article 6 § 1 taken together with Article 6 § 3 (d) and that the finding of a violation constituted in itself sufficient just satisfaction for the non-pecuniary damage sustained by the applicant.

Parties: Demski c/ Polonia

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