CEDH · PRESS;HEARINGS;ENG — 23 novembre 2005

.s800EAC49 { font-size:12pt } .sFE10DC93 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:center } .s29100277 { font-family:Arial; font-weight:bold } .s40F41F73 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:right } .s32563E28 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt } .sBB9EE52A { font-family:Arial } .s4DDA3AA3 { font-family:Arial; font-weight:bold; font-style:italic } .sA36B60A1 { font-family:Arial; font-style:italic } .s7ED160F0 { text-decoration:none } .s653E6C45 { font-family:Arial; font-size:6.67pt; vertical-align:super; color:#0069d6 } .sCB9E0544 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:left } .s69BE285C { margin-top:0pt; margin-left:85.05pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-indent:-85.05pt } .s9A223E1B { width:11.03pt; text-indent:0pt; display:inline-block } .s595A57E4 { width:85.05pt; text-indent:0pt; display:inline-block } .s3CED24E9 { width:27.05pt; text-indent:0pt; display:inline-block } .s9F8EB0C0 { width:18.63pt; display:inline-block } .s9E97F54A { width:85.05pt; display:inline-block } .sF6A12959 { width:33%; height:1px; text-align:left } .s2EB42ED2 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; font-size:10pt } EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS   633 23.11.2005   Press release issued by the Registrar   GRAND CHAMBER HEARING JALLOH v. GERMANY   The European Court of Human Rights is holding a Grand Chamber hearing today 23 November 2005 at 9 a.m. in the case of Jalloh v. Germany (application no. 54810/00).   The applicant   The case concerns an application brought by Abu Bakah Jalloh, a national of Sierra Leone, who was born in 1965 and lives in Cologne (Germany).   Summary of the facts   On 29   October 1993, plain-clothes policemen spotted the applicant taking two small bags out of his mouth and handing them over for money. Considering that the bags contained drugs, the police officers went over to arrest the applicant.   While they were doing so he swallowed another small bag that he still had in his mouth. As no drugs were found on him, the competent public prosecutor ordered that he be given an emetic ( Brechmittel ) to force him to regurgitate the bag.   The applicant was taken to a hospital in Wuppertal-Elberfeld, where the police officers held him down while a doctor put a tube up his nose and administered a salt solution and Ipecacuanha syrup by force. The doctor also injected him with apomorphine, a derivative of morphine. As a result the applicant regurgitated a small bag of 0.2182 g of cocaine.   On 30   October 1993 the applicant was placed in detention on remand until 23   March 1994. He was tried before Wuppertal District Court, which convicted him of drug trafficking and gave him a one-year suspended prison sentence.   The applicant’s lawyer had submitted that the evidence against Mr Jalloh had been obtained illegally and so could not be used in the criminal proceedings. He maintained that the police officers and the doctor who had participated in the operation were guilty of having caused bodily harm in the exercise of official duties ( Körperverletzung im Amt ). The administration of toxic substances was prohibited by Section   136a of the Code of Criminal Procedure ( Strafprozeßordnung ) and the measure was also disproportionate under Section   81a of the Code of Criminal Procedure, as it would have been possible to obtain the same result by waiting until the bag had been excreted naturally.   The applicant appealed unsuccessfully, although his prison sentence was reduced to six-months, suspended. His further appeal was dismissed.   The Federal Constitutional Court refused to admit the applicant’s constitutional complaint, finding that he had not made use of all available remedies before the German criminal courts. The court also found that the measure in question did not give rise to any constitutional objections concerning the protection of human dignity or prevention of self-incrimination, as guaranteed under German Basic Law.   Complaints   The applicant complains that an emetic was administered to him by force and about the use of evidence thus obtained – in his view illegally – in the criminal proceedings leading to his conviction. He claims that his right not to incriminate himself was violated. He relies on Article   3 (prohibition of inhuman and degrading treatment), Article 6 (right to a fair trial) and Article 8 (right to respect for private life) of the European Convention on Human Rights.   Procedure   The application was lodged before the European Court of Human Rights on 30 January 2000 and declared partly admissible on 26 October 2004. On 1 February 2005, the Chamber to which the case had been allocated, relinquished jurisdiction in favour of the Grand Chamber, under Article 30 [1] of the Convention.   Composition of the Court   The case will be heard by the Grand Chamber composed as follows:   Luzius Wildhaber (Swiss), President , Christos Rozakis (Greek), Nicolas Bratza (British), Boštjan M. Zupančič (Slovenian), Georg Ress (German), Giovanni Bonello (Maltese), Lucius Caflisch (Swiss) [2] Ireneu Cabral Barreto (Portuguese), Matti Pellonpää (Finnish), András Baka (Hungarian), Rait Maruste (Estonian), Javier Borrego Borrego (Spanish), Elisabet Fura-Sandström (Swedish), Khanlar Hajiyev (Azerbaijani), Ljiljana Mijović (citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina), Alvina Gyulumyan (Armenian), Ján Šikuta (Slovakian), judges , Snejana Botoucharova (Bulgarian), Egbert Myjer (Netherlands), Loukis Loucaides (Cypriot), substitute judges , and also Lawrence Early , Deputy Grand Chamber Registrar .   Representatives of the parties   Government :   Almut Wittling-Vogel , Agent ,   Heiko Brückner, Christina Kreis, Jakob Klaas, Klaus Püschel,   Harald Körner , Advisers ;   Applicant :   Ulrich Busch, Andrej Busch , Counsel .     After the hearing the Court will begin its deliberations, which are held in private.     ***     Registry of the European Court of Human Rights F – 67075 Strasbourg Cedex Press contacts:   Roderick Liddell (telephone: +00 33 (0)3 88 41 24 92)   Emma Hellyer (telephone: +00 33 (0)3 90 21 42 15)   Stéphanie Klein (telephone: +00 33 (0)3 88 41 21 54)   Beverley Jacobs (telephone: +00 33 (0)3 90 21 54 21) Fax: +00 33 (0)3 88 41 27 91   The European Court of Human Rights was set up in Strasbourg by the Council of Europe Member States in 1959 to deal with alleged violations of the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights. Since 1 November 1998 it has sat as a full-time Court composed of an equal number of judges to that of the States party to the Convention. The Court examines the admissibility and merits of applications submitted to it. It sits in Chambers of 7 judges or, in exceptional cases, as a Grand Chamber of 17 judges. The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe supervises the execution of the Court’s judgments. More detailed information about the Court and its activities can be found on its Internet site. [1] Where a case pending before a Chamber raises a serious question affecting the interpretation of the Convention or the protocols thereto, or where the resolution of a question before the Chamber might have a result inconsistent with a judgment previously delivered by the Court, the Chamber may, at any time before it has rendered its judgment, relinquish jurisdiction in favour of the Grand Chamber, unless one of the parties to the case objects. [2] Judge elected in respect of Liechtenstein.