CEDH · PRESS;FORTHCOMINGJUDGMENTS;ENG — 31 janvier 2008

.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 } .s7ED160F0 { text-decoration:none } .s3DC36BA9 { font-family:Arial; text-decoration:underline; color:#0069d6 } .s653E6C45 { font-family:Arial; font-size:6.67pt; vertical-align:super; color:#0069d6 } .sCB9E0544 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:left } .sC7EAD8B { font-family:Arial; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:underline } .sA36B60A1 { font-family:Arial; font-style:italic } .sF6A12959 { width:33%; height:1px; text-align:left } .s2EB42ED2 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; font-size:10pt } EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS   67 31.1.2008   Press release issued by the Registrar   FORTHCOMING GRAND CHAMBER JUDGMENT   5 February 2008   The European Court of Human Rights will be holding a public hearing in the Human Rights Building, Strasbourg, on Tuesday 5 February 2008 at 4 p.m. (local time) to deliver its Grand Chamber judgment in the case of Ramanauskas v. Lithuania (application no. 74420/01)   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 ).     Ramanauskas v. Lithuania   Kęstas Ramanauskas is a Lithuanian national who was born in 1966 and lives in Kaišiadorys (Lithuania). He worked as a prosecutor in the Kaišiadorys region.   The applicant submitted that in late 1998 and early 1999 he had been approached by AZ, a person previously unknown to him, through VS, a private acquaintance. AZ – who was, in fact, an officer of a special anti-corruption police unit of the Ministry of Interior (STT) – offered the applicant a bribe of 3,000   US   dollars   (USD) in return for a promise to obtain the acquittal of a third person. The applicant having initially refused, AZ subsequently reiterated the offer a number of times before the applicant agreed.   The Government submitted that VS and AZ had approached the applicant and negotiated the conditions for the bribe on their own initiative, before the authorities were informed.   On an unspecified date AZ informed the STT that the applicant had agreed to accept a bribe and, on 27 January 1999, the Deputy Prosecutor General authorised VS and AZ to simulate criminal acts of bribery.   On 28 January 1999 the applicant accepted USD   1,500 from AZ. On 11   February 1999 AZ paid the applicant a further USD   1,000.   The same day, the Prosecutor General brought a criminal case against the applicant for accepting a bribe, under the then Article 282 of the Criminal Code.   On 29 August 2000 the applicant was convicted of accepting a bribe of USD 2,500 from AZ and sentenced to 19 months and six days’ imprisonment. VS was not examined during the trial.   The judgment was upheld on appeal and the applicant’s cassation appeal was unsuccessful.   On 31 January 2002 the applicant was released on licence.   The applicant complains that he was incited to commit an offence by the State authorities and that, as a result, he was unfairly convicted of bribery. He further alleges that the principle of equality of arms and his defence rights were violated in that one of the two undercover agents in the case was not examined during the trial by the courts or the parties and that the domestic courts did not provide him with an adequate review of his entrapment allegations. He relies on Article   6 (right to a fair hearing) of the European Convention on Human Rights.   On 19 September 2006 the Chamber to which the case had originally been assigned relinquished jurisdiction in favour of the Grand Chamber under Article 30 [1] of the Convention.     ***   Press contacts Emma Hellyer (telephone: 00 33 (0)3 90 21 42 15) Stéphanie Klein (telephone: 00 33 (0)3 88 41 21 54) Tracey Turner-Tretz (telephone: 00 33 (0)3 88 41 35 30) Paramy Chanthalangsy (telephone: 00 33 (0)3 90 21 54 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. [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.