CEDH · PRESS;GCJUDGMENTS;ENG — 30 mars 2009

.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 } .s7ED160F0 { text-decoration:none } .s653E6C45 { font-family:Arial; font-size:6.67pt; vertical-align:super; color:#0069d6 } .s4DDA3AA3 { font-family:Arial; font-weight:bold; font-style:italic } .s3DC36BA9 { font-family:Arial; text-decoration:underline; color:#0069d6 } .s4B8D41EE { font-family:Arial; font-size:10pt } .sCB9E0544 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:left } .sADADF4A7 { font-family:Arial; text-decoration:underline } .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   263 30.3.2009   Press release issued by the Registrar   GRAND CHAMBER JUDGMENT LEGER v. FRANCE   The European Court of Human Rights has today notified in writing its Grand Chamber judgment [1] in the case of Leger v. France (application no. 19324/02). The case concerned Mr   Léger’s complaint that his detention for more than 41 years had been arbitrary and constituted inhuman and degrading treatment.   The Court decided by thirteen votes to four to strike the application out of its list of cases.   ( The judgment is available in English and French .)   1.     Principal facts   Lucien Léger, now deceased, was a French national who was born in 1937 and lived in Laon (France).   In July 1964 he was arrested and charged with the abduction and murder of Luc   Taron, an 11-year-old boy. He made a confession while in police custody but retracted it several months later. He protested his innocence until his death in July 2008.   In a judgment of 7   May 1966, Seine-et-Oise Assize Court found the applicant guilty of the offences charged and sentenced him to life imprisonment. He made unsuccessful applications in 1971 and 1974 for a retrial.   Mr Léger became eligible for parole on 5   July 1979 after 15 years in prison. Between 1985 and 1998 he made numerous applications for release, all of which were refused. In addition, he made several unsuccessful applications for a presidential pardon.   In 1999 he again requested his release on licence. Despite a favourable opinion by the Sentence Enforcement Board, his request was turned down by the Minister of Justice as, under a new law introduced in June 2000, the case was referred to newly established courts responsible for the reform of the post-sentencing system.   In January 2001 the applicant made a further application for release under the new judicial procedure. He submitted that friends had offered to accommodate him on his release in an outbuilding at their home and to give him work in their bakery. The Sentence Enforcement Board issued a unanimous opinion in favour of his release on licence and the applicant’s probation and rehabilitation officer also strongly recommended that he be released.   Despite that, Douai Regional Parole Court rejected the request on 6   July 2001 on the grounds that the applicant continued to deny that he had committed the offence of which he had been convicted, that the experts could not exclude the possibility that he was still dangerous and might re-offend and would not be able to do so unless he underwent a course of psychiatric treatment, and that, as the applicant had no intention of following such a programme, it was not clear that he was making “serious efforts to ensure his social rehabilitation”. That decision was upheld on appeal on 23   November 2001 by the National Parole Court on the grounds that the applicant’s planned rehabilitation had been put in doubt by the intervening bankruptcy of the person who had offered to put him up and give him work and that he was unwilling to seek counselling even though he presented paranoid tendencies.   In January 2005 the applicant again submitted a request for his release on licence, which the prison authorities supported but which was opposed by the public prosecutor, who pleaded in particular the risk that he might re-offend. The court responsible for the execution of sentence ruled that his conduct no longer stood in the way of his release and that the risk of his re-offending had dwindled almost to nothing. It accordingly granted him release on licence.   Consequently, Mr   Léger was released on licence on 3   October 2005, after spending more than 41   years in prison.   2.     Procedure and composition of the Court   The application was lodged with the European Court of Human Rights on 6   May 2002 and declared partly admissible on 21   September 2004. A Chamber hearing was held in public in the Human Rights Building, Strasbourg, on 26   April 2005. In its Chamber judgment of 11   April 2006, the Court held, by five votes to two, that there had been no violation of Article   5 §   1   (a) and no violation of Article   3.   On 7   July 2006 the applicant requested that the case be referred to the Grand Chamber under Article   43 [2] (referral to the Grand Chamber) and on 13   September 2006 the panel of the Grand Chamber accepted that request . A Grand Chamber hearing was held in public in the Human Rights Building, Strasbourg, on 30   April 2008.   Judgment was given by the Grand Chamber of 17 judges, composed as follows:   Christos Rozakis (Greece), President , Jean-Paul Costa (France), Nicolas Bratza (the United Kingdom), Josep Casadevall (Andorra), Corneliu Bîrsan (Romania), Nina Vajić (Croatia), Vladimiro Zagrebelsky (Italy) Alvina Gyulumyan (Armenia), Ljiljana Mijović (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Dean Spielmann (Luxembourg), Renate Jaeger (Germany), Sverre Erik Jebens (Norway), Ján Šikuta (Slovakia), Ineta Ziemele (Latvia), Mark Villiger (Liechtenstein), Luis López Guerra (Spain), Ledi Bianku (Albania), judges , and also Erik Fribergh , Registrar .   3.     Summary of the judgment [3]   Complaints   The applicant complained that his continued detention had become arbitrary, particularly after the refusal of his 2001 application for release on licence. He also submitted that in practice it was tantamount to a whole-life sentence and therefore constituted inhuman and degrading treatment. He relied on Article   5 §   1   (a) (right to liberty and security) of the European Convention on Human Rights and Article 3 (prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment) of the Convention.   Decision of the Court   Article 37 § 1   The Court noted that Mr Léger had been found dead in his home on 18 July 2008 and that the ensuing request to pursue the proceedings in his place had been submitted by someone who had provided no evidence either of her status as an heir or a close relative of the applicant, or of any legitimate interest. Nor did the Court consider that respect for human rights required the examination of the case to be continued, given that the relevant domestic law had in the meantime changed and that similar issues in other cases before it had been resolved.   The Court therefore considered that it was no longer justified to continue the examination of the application and, under Article 37 § 1, struck the case out of its list of cases.     Judge Spielmann expressed a dissenting opinion – appended to the judgment – joined by judges Bratza, Gyulumyan and Jebens.     ***   The Court’s judgments are accessible on its Internet site ( http://www.echr.coe.int ).   Press contacts Stefano Piedimonte (telephone : 00 33 (0)3 90 21 42 04) Tracey Turner-Tretz (telephone : 00 33 (0)3 88 41 35 30) Paramy Chanthalangsy (telephone : 00 33 (0)3 88 41 28 30) Kristina Pencheva-Malinowski (telephone : 00 33 (0)3 88 41 35 70) Céline Menu-Lange (telephone : 00 33 (0)3 90 21 58 77)   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] Grand Chamber judgments are final (Article 44 of the Convention). [2] Under Article 43 of the European Convention on Human Rights, within three months from the date of a Chamber judgment, any party to the case may, in exceptional cases, request that the case be referred to the 17 ‑ member Grand Chamber of the Court. In that event, a panel of five judges considers whether the case raises a serious question affecting the interpretation or application of the Convention or its protocols, or a serious issue of general importance, in which case the Grand Chamber will deliver a final judgment. If no such question or issue arises, the panel will reject the request, at which point the judgment becomes final. Otherwise Chamber judgments become final on the expiry of the three-month period or earlier if the parties declare that they do not intend to make a request to refer. [3] This summary by the Registry does not bind the Court.