Source: http://relevancy.bger.ch/php/clir/http/index.php?highlight_docid=cedh%3A%2F%2F20001130_28256_95%3Ade&lang=de&type=show_document
Timestamp: 2018-05-20 23:06:33+00:00
Document Index: 316496845

Matched Legal Cases: ['art. 5', '§ 3', '§ 54', '§ 4', '§ 39', '§ 54', '§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 3', '§ 1', '§ 55', '§ 60', '§ 26', '§ 4', '§ 54', '§ 4']

Urteil no. 28256/95, 30 novembre 2000
SUISSE: Art. 5 par. 4 CEDH. Durée du contrôle de la détention préventive (34 jours).
La détention provisoire de la requérante était fondée sur sa participation présumée, en tant que membre du groupe terroriste "Carlos", à divers actes criminels et visait à prévenir tout risque de fuite et de collusion. Ces motifs étaient légitimes et les parties n'ont pas fait état d'une complexité particulière de l'affaire.
Le Ministère public de la Confédération a rejeté la requête de mise en liberté de la requérante le lendemain, et le recours de celle-ci à la Chambre d'accusation a été introduit cinq jours plus tard, soit dans le délai légal. Le Tribunal fédéral a alors imparti des délais de six, respectivement dix jours aux intéressés pour présenter leurs observations, ce qui n'était pas nécessaire et apparaît trop long. Puis le Tribunal fédéral a mis douze jours - huit jours de travail - pour rendre sa décision, alors que vingt et un jours s'étaient déjà écoulés depuis le dépôt de la requête, ce qui est excessif.
Si la Suisse s'est dotée d'un tel double degré de juridiction, elle doit organiser son système judiciaire de manière à satisfaire aux exigences de l'art. 5 par. 4 CEDH. Vu les retards intervenus, la durée globale de la procédure et l'enjeu de celle-ci pour la requérante, il n'a pas été statué à bref délai sur sa requête de mise en liberté (ch. 36 - 43).
1. The case originated in an application (no. 28256/95) against Switzerland lodged with the European Commission of Human Rights ("the Commission") under former Article 25 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms ("the Convention") by a Swiss national, Ms M.B. ("the applicant"), on 22 May 1995.
2. The applicant was represented by Mr M. Bosonnet, a lawyer practising in Zürich, Switzerland. The Swiss Government ("the Government") were represented by their Agent, Mr P. Boillat, Head of the International Affairs Division of the Federal Office of Justice. The President of the Chamber acceded to the applicant's request not to have her name disclosed (Rule 47 § 3 of the Rules of Court).
9. On 19 September 1994 the Federal Attorney (Bundesanwältin) issued a warrant of arrest against the applicant on suspicion of having committed "repeated assassination (ripetuto assassinio), committed as a member of the terrorist group 'Carlos' and repeated participation in the preparation and implementation of ... attacks (attentati)", the details of which were then listed.
10. On the same day, 19 September 1994, the applicant was arrested in Locarno in Switzerland and remanded in custody. On 20 September 1994 she was transported to Bern where she arrived at 10h00. At 14h40 she was questioned by police officers of the Federal Attorney's office (Bundesanwaltschaft).
12. The investigations were then conducted by the Federal Attorney's office.
13. On 5 October 1994 the applicant was heard by the Federal Attorney's office. As from this date, the applicant refused to comment on the charges laid against her.
15. On Tuesday, 25 October 1994, the Federal Attorney dismissed the applicant's request. The decision was served on the applicant on Wednesday, 26 October. According to the decision, the applicant was suspected of having participated, as a member of the Carlos terrorist group, in bomb attacks in 1982 of French embassies in Beirut and Vienna and of a train in France. She was also suspected of having murdered a diplomat couple in Beirut in 1982. These bomb attacks had occurred after two members of the Carlos group had been arrested in France. The Carlos group transmitted a letter to the French Government, threatening to commit the attacks if the two members were not released. The applicant was suspected of having deposited this letter at the French Embassy in The Hague. After the time-limit mentioned in the letter had elapsed, the attacks were committed.
16. On Wednesday, 26 October 1994, the applicant was questioned by the Federal Attorney's office.
17. On Thursday, 27 October 1994, the applicant asked for permission to consult the entire case file. The Federal Attorney's office refused the request on the same day, inter alia, in view of a danger of collusion.
22. On Wednesday, 23 November 1994, the Indictment Chamber of the Federal Court dismissed the applicant's request. The decision was served on the applicant on Thursday, 24 November 1994.
23. In respect of the applicant's complaint that she could not consult the entire case file, the Indictment Chamber found that the applicant had had knowledge of the essential documents. Moreover, she did not dispute the Federal Attorney's observations of 7 November 1994 according to which the applicant had been able to read all incriminating documents when questioned.
25. On 7 December 1994 the applicant filed a further request for release which was granted by the Federal Attorney's Office in a decision dated 13 December 1994. The decision stated that the original suspicion directed against the applicant had not been confirmed (erhärtet).
30. The Government contended that the period commenced on 24 October 1994 when the applicant's request was received by the Federal Attorney. It ended on 24 November when the Federal Court's decision was served on the applicant. In the Government's view, the period of five days from 26 to 31 October, when the applicant prepared her appeal to the Federal Court, cannot be counted.
31. The Court considers that the submission of the applicant's request for release from detention to the Federal Attorney opened the administrative proceedings and was a prerequisite for the Federal Court's exercise of judicial supervision (see the Sanchez-Reisse v. Switzerland judgment of 21 October 1986, Series A no. 107, p. 20, § 54). The period to be examined therefore commenced on 21 October 1994. It ended on 24 November 1994, when the Federal Court's decision was served on the applicant. As a result, the period to be examined under Article 5 § 4 of the Convention lasted 34 days. The period which the applicant required for filing her appeal to the Federal Court falls to be examined together with the issue whether the proceedings were conducted speedily (see below, § 39).
33. The Government contended that a serious assessment of the lawfulness of the applicant's detention could not have been conducted within a shorter period of time. Swiss law provides for a decision of an administrative authority preceding the judicial examination of the detention. This system has been considered to be in conformity with the Convention (see the Sanchez-Reisse judgment cited above, p. 17, § 54). Moreover, the accused has an absolute right to reply, regardless of whether use is made of this right. Such a right necessarily prolongs the proceedings, though in the present case the Federal Court kept the time-limit to the strict minimum.
34. The Government drew attention to the manner in which the applicant's request of 21 October 1994 was dealt with. The Federal Attorney was able to give her reply within one day. The President of the Indictment Chamber opened the procedure before the Federal Court on 1 November 1994, i.e. the day when the applicant's appeal arrived; and after the applicant's reply was received by the Court on 14 November, its decision was served on the applicant only eleven days later, on 24 November 1994.
37. It is true that in the case of Sanchez-Reisse v. Switzerland - involving extradition proceedings with a similar two tier-procedure as in the present case - the release proceedings lasting 31 days and 46 days, respectively, were found to be in breach of Article 5 § 4 of the Convention. Nevertheless, the requirement of Article 5 § 4 of the Convention that decisions be taken "speedily" must - as is the case for the "reasonable time" stipulation in Articles 5 § 3 and 6 § 1 of the Convention - be determined in the light of the circumstances of each case (see the Sanchez-Reisse judgment cited above, p. 20, § 55, and p. 22, § 60).
38. Turning to the circumstances of the present case, the Court notes that the applicant was remanded in custody on the urgent suspicion of having participated, as a member of a terrorist group, in various criminal acts, and in view of a danger of collusion and of absconding. In her request for release from detention of 21 October 1994, the applicant contested these grounds. In the Court's opinion, these were straightforward matters, and it has not been argued by the parties that the case itself disclosed any features of particular complexity.
39. The Court has next examined the various stages of the proceedings. Once the Federal Attorney had received the applicant's request on 25 October 1994, she dismissed it one day later, on 26 October. It took the applicant five days to file her appeal. This lapse of time (the week-end not counting) did not exceed the time-limit set up under the Federal Act on Criminal Procedure (see above, § 26).
40. After the applicant's appeal had been received by the Federal Court on Tuesday, 1 November 1994, the latter organised the procedure on the same day. It requested the Federal Attorney to comment on the appeal by Monday, 7 November, and the applicant to submit her reply by 11 November. In the Court's view, however, as the Federal Attorney had previously been able to give her decision of 25 October, only one day after having received the applicant's request, and as the applicant was conversant with her own case, this period of 10 days for filing observations appears unnecessarily long.
41. Once the applicant had filed her observations on Friday, 11 November 1994, the Federal Court required an additional 12 days - 8 working days - until it pronounced its decision on Wednesday, 23 November 1994. Bearing in mind that by 11 November the proceedings had already been pending before the Federal Court for 10 days, and that altogether 21 days had lapsed since the request for release from detention of 21 October, the Court finds that this period was excessive.
42. The Court observes that Switzerland has chosen, for such cases involving release from detention on remand, a two tier-procedure which includes as the first instance an administrative authority and, as the second, the Federal Court, which is the highest judicial authority in Switzerland. However, these circumstances cannot in themselves serve to justify the applicant's being deprived of her rights under Article 5 § 4 of the Convention. It is for the State to organise its judicial system in such a way as to enable its courts to comply with the requirements of that provision (see, mutatis mutandis, the R.M.D. v. Switzerland judgment of 26 September 1997, Reports of Judgments and Decisions 1997-VI, p. 2015, § 54.)
43. Having regard to the delays at issue, the overall duration of the proceedings, and what was at stake for the applicant, the Court concludes that the proceedings were not conducted "speedily" within the meaning of Article 5 § 4 of the Convention. There has accordingly been a breach of this Article.
46. The Government recalled that only one of the applicant's complaints had been declared admissible, and that this particular complaint only concerned a minor part of the observations submitted by the applicant during the admissibility proceedings. In this respect, the Government considered the sum of CHF 3,000 as being adequate.
48. The Court finds the applicant's claim for the Strasbourg proceedings excessive and, making an assessment on an equitable basis, awards her CHF 4,000.