CEDH · PRESS;FORTHCOMINGJUDGMENTS;ENG — 11 mai 2007

.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 } .sADADF4A7 { font-family:Arial; text-decoration:underline } .sA36B60A1 { font-family:Arial; font-style:italic } .sCB9E0544 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:left } .sC7EAD8B { font-family:Arial; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:underline } EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS   307 11.5.2007   Press release issued by the Registrar   FORTHCOMING GRAND CHAMBER JUDGMENT   15 May 2007   The European Court of Human Rights will be holding a public hearing in the Human Rights Building, Strasbourg, on Tuesday 15 May 2007 at 9 a.m. (local time) to deliver the Grand Chamber judgment in the case of Ramsahai and Others v. the Netherlands (application no.   52391/99).   The press release and the text of the judgment will be available after the hearing on the Court’s Internet site ( http://www.echr.coe.int ).     Ramsahai and Others v. the Netherlands   The case concerns an application brought by three Netherlands nationals, Renee Ramsahai, Mildred Ramsahai and Ricky Ramsahai, the grandfather, grandmother and father, respectively, of Moravia Ramsahai, born on 6 December 1979, who was shot dead by a policeman in July 1998. Renee and Mildred Ramsahai were both born in 1938 and Ricky Ramsahai was born in 1960. They all live in Amsterdam.   In the evening of Sunday 19 July 1998, during the “Kwakoe” festival in the Bijlmermeer district of Amsterdam (a celebration by the Surinamese immigrant community of the abolition of slavery in Suriname 135 years earlier), Moravia Ramsahai stole a scooter from its owner at gunpoint and drove off on it.   The police were notified. Two uniformed police officers on patrol, Officers Brons and Bultstra, spotted a scooter driven by a person fitting the description they had been given – later identified as Moravia Ramsahai – and tried to arrest him.   As was afterwards found, Officer Bultstra saw Moravia Ramsahai draw a pistol from his trouser belt. Officer Bultstra drew his service pistol and ordered Moravia Ramsahai to drop his weapon. Moravia Ramsahai failed to do so. Officer Brons then approached. Moravia Ramsahai, raised his pistol and pointed it towards Officer Brons, who drew his pistol and fired. Moravia Ramsahai was hit in the neck. At 10.03 p.m. an ambulance was called. When it arrived, at about 10.15 p.m., Moravia Ramsahai was already dead.   A criminal investigation was ordered. Parts of the investigation were carried out by the Amsterdam/Amstelland Police Force (to which Officers Brons and Bultstra belonged); it was initially in charge of the investigation for the first 15-and-a-half hours, after which the investigation was taken over by an officer of the State Criminal Investigation Department ( Rijksrecherche ).   The public prosecutor, finding that Officer Brons had acted in legitimate self-defence, decided that no prosecution should be brought. This decision was endorsed by the Amsterdam Court of Appeal at the close of proceedings brought by the applicants.   The applicants complained about the circumstances surrounding the shooting of Moravia Ramsahai and the lack of an effective and independent investigation into his death. They relied on Article 2 (right to life) of the European Convention on Human Rights, Article 6 § 1 (right to a fair hearing) and Article 13 (right to an effective remedy).   In its Chamber judgment of 10 November 2005 (press release 609 of 2005) the Court held, by five votes to two, that there had been no violation of Article 2 concerning the shooting by a police officer of Moravia Ramsahai, and a violation of Article 2 in respect of the investigation into his death.   The case was referred to the Grand Chamber at the request of the Government. A hearing took place in public in the Human Rights Building, Strasbourg, on 18 October 2006.     ***   Press contacts 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) Tracey Turner-Tretz (telephone : 00 33 (0)3 88 41 35 30)   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.