CEDH · PRESS;FORTHCOMINGHEARINGS;ENG — 22 décembre 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 } .sADADF4A7 { font-family:Arial; text-decoration:underline } .sC7EAD8B { font-family:Arial; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:underline } .s4DDA3AA3 { font-family:Arial; font-weight:bold; font-style:italic } .s7ED160F0 { text-decoration:none } .s3DC36BA9 { font-family:Arial; text-decoration:underline; color:#0069d6 } .sCB9E0544 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:left } .sA36B60A1 { font-family:Arial; font-style:italic } EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS   935 22.12.2008   Press release issued by the Registrar   HEARING IN JANUARY   The European Court of Human Rights will be holding the following hearing in January 2009 :   Wednesday 7 January: 9.15 a.m.   Grand Chamber   Scoppola v. Italy (application no. 10249/03)   The applicant, Franco Scoppola, is an Italian national who was born in 1940 and is currently imprisoned in Parma.   Le 2 September 1999, after a fight with his children, the applicant killed his wife and injured one of his sons. He was arrested on 3   September. After the investigation the Rome prosecution service recommended that the applicant be committed for trial for murder, attempted murder, ill-treatment of his family and illegal possession of a weapon.   In February 2000 the Rome preliminary hearings judge allowed the applicant’s request to be tried under the summary procedure, a simplified process entailing, in the event of conviction, a reduction of sentence. In the version in force on that date, Article 442 of the Code of Criminal Procedure provided that a defendant otherwise liable to life imprisonment should be sentenced to a term of 30 years.   On 24 November 2000 the preliminary hearings judge found the applicant guilty and noted that the applicable sentence was life imprisonment. However, as the applicant had elected to stand trial under the summary procedure the judge sentenced him to 30 years’ imprisonment.   The public prosecutor’s office at the Rome Court of Appeal appealed. It was contended that the preliminary hearings judge should have applied Legislative Decree no. 341 of 24   November 2000, which had entered into force on the same day as the applicant’s conviction. Article 7 of the decree, which was intended to provide an authoritative interpretation of Article 442 of the CCP, provided that, where the summary procedure had been followed, life imprisonment with daytime isolation was to be replaced by life imprisonment without isolation.   In September 2001 the Rome Assize Court of Appeal sentenced the applicant to life imprisonment. Noting that Legislative Decree no. 341 had entered into force on the same day as the preliminary hearings judge gave judgment, it ruled that, as the rule the decree introduced was a procedural rule, it applied to all pending proceedings. It pointed out that under the decree’s provisions the applicant could have withdrawn his request for adoption of the summary procedure and elected to stand trial under the ordinary procedure. As he had not done so, the first-instance decision should have taken into account the new rules brought in by the legislative decree.   The applicant appealed, complaining that he had been sentenced to life imprisonment following the changes introduced by Legislative Decree no. 341. His appeals were unsuccessful.   On 13 May 2008 the European Court of Human Rights adopted a final decision on the admissibility of the application lodged on 24 March 2003. The Court noted that the applicant’s complaints did not exclusively concern the alleged violation of Article 7 of the Convention (no punishment without law), but also the question whether the provisions introduced by Legislative Decree no. 341 of 24 November 2000 had infringed the principles of fair trial as set forth in Article 6 § 1 of the Convention.   On 2 September 2008 the Chamber to which the case had been allocated relinquished jurisdiction in favour of the Grand Chamber.   ***   Decisions, judgments and further information about the Court can be found on its Internet site ( http://www.echr.coe.int ).   Press contacts Adrien Raif-Meyer (telephone: 00 33 (0)3 88 41 33 37) Tracey Turner-Tretz (telephone: 00 33 (0)3 88 41 35 30) Sania Ivedi (telephone: 00 33 (0)3 90 21 59 45)   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.