THIRD SECTION
CASE OF SLAVKOV AND OTHERS v. BULGARIA
(Application no. 36250/12)
 
 
 
 
 
 
JUDGMENT
 
STRASBOURG
17 October 2023
 
This judgment is final but it may be subject to editorial revision. In the case of Slavkov and Others v. Bulgaria,
The European Court of Human Rights (Third Section), sitting as a Committee composed of:
 Ioannis Ktistakis, President,
 Yonko Grozev,
 Andreas Zünd, judges,
and Olga Chernishova, Deputy Section Registrar,
Having regard to:
the application (no. 36250/12) against the Republic of Bulgaria lodged with the Court under Article 34 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (“the Convention”) on 4 June 2012, by three applicants – two physical persons and a limited liability company – whose relevant details are listed in the appended table (“the applicants”) and who were represented by Mr M. Ekimdzhiev and Ms S. Stefanova, lawyers practising in Plovdiv;
the decision to give notice to the Bulgarian Government (“the Government”), represented by their Agent, Ms B. Simeonova from the Ministry of Justice, of the first applicant’s complaint under Article 5 §§ 3 and 5 of the Convention, as well as the complaint concerning the prolonged freezing of the three applicants’ assets, and to declare inadmissible the remainder of the application;
the parties’ observations;
Having deliberated in private on 26 September 2023,
Delivers the following judgment, which was adopted on that date:
SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE
1. The present case concerns the duration of the detention on remand of the first applicant, Mr I. Slavkov. It also concerns the freezing of the three applicants’ assets with a view to their prospective forfeiture as proceeds of crime. 2. Mr Slavkov was arrested on 20 October 2008 upon charges of participation in an organised criminal group created for the commission of money laundering, pimping, human trafficking and drug trafficking. He remained in detention until 11 July 2012 when he was released on bail; by that time the criminal proceedings against his group were pending before the first-instance Varna Regional Court. During the period of his detention the first applicant submitted twenty-two requests to be released, which were dismissed by the Varna Regional Court and the Varna Court of Appeal. On many occasions the domestic courts referred to the gravity of the charges against the applicant, the fact that his criminal group had been well-structured and armed and had functioned for some time before being dismantled, his leading position in it and his having “authority” in criminal circles; all these elements were seen as justifying a risk of the applicant reoffending, absconding or intimidating witnesses. The first applicant’s “aggressiveness” in the courtroom was also seen as an indication that he might reoffend or try to tamper with evidence. The domestic courts pointed out that the criminal proceedings were complex, that the hearings were being held at regular intervals, and that substantial delays had been caused by the defence. 3. In a judgment of 15 January 2013 the Varna Regional Court convicted the first applicant and his co-accused; its finding was that their criminal group had operated between 1996 and 2008. The applicant was sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment. However, the conviction and sentence were quashed by the Supreme Court of Cassation and the proceedings restarted from first instance, where they were still pending at the time of the latest communication from the parties in May 2023. 4. In the meantime, the Commission for Uncovering Proceeds of Crime (hereinafter “the Commission”) opened proceedings and in December 2008 applied for the freezing of assets of the three applicants – Mr Slavkov, his wife and a company controlled by him (see the appended list), with a view to their prospective forfeiture as proceeds of crime. While the Commission could only apply for actual forfeiture after the close of the criminal proceedings, and if the first applicant was convicted, its preliminary investigation already showed that during the period under examination, between 1997 and 2008, Mr Slavkov and his wife had received lawful income equivalent to about 1,517 minimum monthly salaries (on the national courts’ use of such equivalents in similar situation, see Todorov and Others v. Bulgaria, nos. 50705/11 and 6 others, § 109, 13 July 2021), while the three applicants’ expenses had equalled 6,892 minimum monthly salaries. The Commission was thus of the view that it could be presumed that the assets owned by the applicants at that time, namely two flats in Varna, several cars and shares in several companies, were the proceeds of crime. 5. In a decision of 13 January 2010 the Varna Court of Appeal froze those assets, save for a flat which was not subject to the freezing request. Injunctions were also imposed on bank accounts of the applicants in which, according to the Government, there were no funds. 6. Subsequently the applicants applied for the unfreezing of their assets, but their application was dismissed in a final decision of the Varna Court of Appeal of 1 November 2012. The domestic courts held that the continuing criminal proceedings against the first applicant justified the validity of the contested measures, and that at that stage it was impossible to assess the well‑foundedness of the prospective forfeiture application. 7. The applicants’ assets described above remained frozen at the time of the latest communication from the parties in May 2023. 8. Mr Slavkov complained under Article 5 § 3 of the Convention of the length of his detention on remand, and under Article 5 § 5 of the lack of an enforceable right to compensation in that regard. The three applicants complained under Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 of the freezing of their assets; they considered this measure unjustified and excessively lengthy.

Outcome for Article 5: violation