Rácz v. Hungary

FOURTH SECTION

Application no. 50479/18 József Gábor RÁCZ against Hungary

(see appended table)

The European Court of Human Rights (Fourth Section), sitting on 26 September 2019 as a Committee composed of:

Stéphanie Mourou-Vikström, President, Georges Ravarani, Jolien Schukking, judges,

and Liv Tigerstedt, Acting Deputy Section Registrar,

Having regard to the above application lodged on 24 October 2018,

Having regard to the observations submitted by the respondent Government and the observations in reply submitted by the applicant,

Having deliberated, decides as follows:

FACTS AND PROCEDURE

The applicant’s details are set out in the appended table.

The applicant’s complaints under Articles 6 § 1 and 13 of the Convention concerning the excessive length of criminal proceedings and the lack of an effective remedy in this regard were communicated to the Hungarian Government (“the Government”).

THE LAW

In the present application, having examined all the material before it, the Court considers that for the reasons stated below, the respondent Government cannot be held liable for the protraction of the case.

In particular, the Court notes that the domestic courts acknowledged the protraction of the proceedings and provided redress when taking this into account as an important mitigating factor on sentencing the applicant.

In view of the above, the Court finds that the applicant can no longer claim to be a victim of a violation of his rights under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention, and these complaints must therefore be rejected in accordance with Article 35 §§ 3 and 4 of the Convention.

The applicant also raised a complaint under Article 13 of the Convention concerning the lack of any effective remedy for his complaint about the length of the proceedings.

The Court observes that the applicant’s complaint under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention is inadmissible within the meaning of Article 35 § 3 of the Convention. It follows that he has no “arguable claim” of a violation of his rights under Article 6 § 1 for the purposes of Article 13 of the Convention.

It follows that this part of the application is incompatible ratione materiae with the provision of the Convention within the meaning of Article 35 § 3 (a) and must be rejected, in accordance with Article 35 § 4 of the Convention.

For these reasons, the Court, unanimously,

Declares the application inadmissible.

Done in English and notified in writing on 17 October 2019.

Liv Tigerstedt Stéphanie Mourou-Vikström Acting Deputy Registrar President

APPENDIX

Application raising complaints under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention

(excessive length of criminal proceedings)

Application no.

Date of introduction

Applicant’s name

Date of birth

Start of proceedings

End of proceedings

Total length

Levels of jurisdiction

Other complaints under well-established case-law

50479/18

24/10/2018

József Gábor Rácz

02/12/1961

26/08/2008

02/05/2018

9 year(s) and 8 month(s) and 7 day(s) 2 level(s) of jurisdiction

Art. 13 - lack of any effective remedy in domestic law against the length of the criminal proceedings.