CEDH · CASELAW;COMMUNICATEDCASES;ENG — 16 février 2024

.s800EAC49 { font-size:12pt } .s379BC09C { margin-top:36pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:right } .sBB9EE52A { font-family:Arial } .s10950C61 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-indent:14.2pt; text-align:justify } .s523616E0 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:12pt; text-align:center; font-size:14pt } .s39E5096F { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:14pt; text-align:center } .s54AB6003 { margin-top:66pt; margin-bottom:14pt; text-align:center } .s29100277 { font-family:Arial; font-weight:bold } .s665E407E { margin-top:66pt; margin-bottom:14pt; text-align:center; page-break-inside:avoid; page-break-after:avoid } .sA36B60A1 { font-family:Arial; font-style:italic } Published on 4 March 2024   FIRST SECTION Application no. 12013/21 Z.G. against Hungary lodged on 16 February 2021 communicated on 16 February 2024 SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE The application concerns the search of the applicant’s premises and the removal of material in the context of a fiscal fraud investigation concerning one of his clients. The applicant is a lawyer. The seat of his law office is registered in Nyíregyháza; his place of work and the archives of his law office are registered in Budapest. In 2018 the National Tax and Customs Office opened an investigation against K.F., one of the applicant’s clients. On 23 September 2019 it opened an additional investigation into fiscal fraud against K.F. On 24 July 2020 the National Tax and Customs Office ordered the search of the applicant’s premises in Budapest and the seizure of documents related to the “criminal connection” between the applicant and K.F., to the legal relationship between the applicant and the “companies concerned”, and to the “fictious seat” of those companies. On 28 July 2020 the National Tax and Customs Office searched the applicant’s premises in Budapest. According to the applicant it seized documents not specified in the search warrant, including documents related to the criminal proceedings against the son of K.F. and the applicant’s correspondence with third parties as of 2013. In addition, ten other case files were seized as an immediate measure, which was subsequently authorised on 30 July 2020. On 28 July 2020, at around 3 p.m., the applicant was placed in short-term arrest and the seat of his law office in Nyíregyháza was also searched in his presence. The applicant’s complaint against the search and seizure was dismissed by the Hajdú-Bihar County regional prosecutor’s office on 4   August 2020. The applicant’s representative lodged a separate complaint against the search and seizure, which was declared inadmissible by the Chief prosecutor’s office on 17 August 2020. The requests of the applicant and his legal representative for the judicial review of the decisions lodged with Debrecen District Court were to no avail. The applicant complains that the search of his premises and the seizure of certain documents, in particular those containing his correspondence with his clients and relating to the criminal proceedings against the son of K.F., have violated his rights protected by Article 8 of the Convention. QUESTION TO THE PARTIES Has there been a violation of the applicant’s right to respect for his private life and/or correspondence and/or home, contrary to Article 8 of the Convention, on account of the search of his premises and seizure of documents ( Robathin v. Austria , no. 30457/06, 3 July 2012; Sérvulo   &   Associados - Sociedade de Advogados, RL and Others v. Portugal , no.   27013/10, 3 September 2015; Saber v. Norway , no. 459/18, 17   December 2020; and Särgava v. Estonia , no. 698/19, 16 November 2021)?