CEDH · CASELAW;CLIN;ENG — 10 décembre 2013

.s3ABFC313 { font-size:10pt } .sD4B5322E { margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:12pt; text-align:justify } .sBB9EE52A { font-family:Arial } .sA241FE93 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:18pt; text-align:justify; page-break-after:avoid; border-bottom:0.75pt solid #000000; padding-bottom:1pt } .s2EF62ED2 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; font-size:12pt } .s4DDA3AA3 { font-family:Arial; font-weight:bold; font-style:italic } .s29100277 { font-family:Arial; font-weight:bold } .s32563E28 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt } .s8F2B0B1B { margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:12pt; page-break-after:avoid; font-size:12pt } .sEB86A30B { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:14pt; page-break-after:avoid } .sA36B60A1 { font-family:Arial; font-style:italic } .s5F48796F { margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:justify } .s7ED160F0 { text-decoration:none } .s3DC36BA9 { font-family:Arial; text-decoration:underline; color:#0069d6 } .s8B6C6D43 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; border-bottom:1pt solid #000000; padding-bottom:1pt } .sDF790F1E { margin-top:12pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:center } Information Note on the Court’s case-law No. 173 April 2014 Murray v. the Netherlands (referral) - 10511/10 Judgment 10.12.2013 [Section III] Article 3 Degrading punishment Inhuman punishment Refusal to grant life prisoner who had served more than 30   years in prison and was suffering from limited mental development release on parole: case referred to the Grand Chamber The applicant, who suffers from limited mental development, was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment by the Joint Court of Justice of the Netherlands Antilles in March 1980. His repeated requests for a pardon were refused. In 2011 new legislation was introduced requiring periodic reviews of life imprisonment sentences on Curaçao, where the applicant was being held. His sentence was accordingly submitted to review but in September 2012 the Joint Court of Justice, after taking into account expert psychiatric evidence that the applicant was suffering from an antisocial personality disorder, the applicant’s attitude during the hearing and the position of the victim’s relatives, decided that it still served a reasonable purpose. In his application to the European Court the applicant complained under Article   3 of the Convention of the imposition on him of a life sentence with no possibility of a review and of the conditions of his detention. In a judgment of 10 December 2013, a Chamber of the Court held unanimously that there had been no violation of Article   3 in respect of the applicant’s life sentence. It noted that the possibility of review of a life sentence had been introduced in November 2011 in the Curaçao Criminal Code, which stipulated that any person sentenced to life imprisonment would be released on parole after serving at least 20   years of his/her sentence, if in the opinion of the Joint Court of Justice a custodial sentence no longer served any reasonable purpose. That review mechanism met the criteria set out in Vinter and Others v.   the United Kingdom [GC] (66069/09, 130/10 and 3896/10, 9   July 2013, Information Note   165 ). A review had been carried out in the applicant’s case and had culminated in a decision of the Joint Court of Justice that he should not be released on parole, in view of the expert medical reports on his psychiatric condition, personality and behaviour, and the risk of his further offending. Further, although it was true that the possibility of a legal review of a life sentence did not exist on Curaçao at the time the applicant lodged his application to the European Court in February 2010, it was unnecessary to assess whether his life sentence could be considered to have been de jure and de facto reducible before then as the applicant had not lodged his application until almost thirty years after his conviction. The Chamber also held unanimously that there had been no violation of Article   3 in respect of the applicant’s conditions of detention. On 17 April 2014 the case was referred to the Grand Chamber at the applicant’s request.   © Council of Europe/European Court of Human Rights This summary by the Registry does not bind the Court. Click here for the Case-Law Information Notes