CEDH · PRESS;HEARINGS;ENG — 28 avril 2010

.s800EAC49 { font-size:12pt } .sA678F94A { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:right; font-size:11pt } .s29100277 { font-family:Arial; font-weight:bold } .s598389F8 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:center; font-size:11pt } .s2E932ED2 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; font-size:11pt } .sBB9EE52A { font-family:Arial } .s2EB42ED2 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; font-size:10pt } .s32563E28 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt } .s4B8D41EE { font-family:Arial; font-size:10pt } .s7ED160F0 { text-decoration:none } .sB6D33163 { font-family:Arial; font-size:10pt; text-decoration:underline; color:#0069d6 } .sA36B60A1 { font-family:Arial; font-style:italic } .s653E6C45 { font-family:Arial; font-size:6.67pt; vertical-align:super; color:#0069d6 } .s3C4DB099 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:left; font-size:10pt } .s4DDA3AA3 { font-family:Arial; font-weight:bold; font-style:italic } .s8A3CF085 { margin-top:0pt; margin-left:85.05pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-indent:-85.05pt; font-size:10pt } .s6A8CBA8D { width:23.37pt; text-indent:0pt; display:inline-block } .s595A57E4 { width:85.05pt; text-indent:0pt; display:inline-block } .s9F8241A8 { width:36.72pt; text-indent:0pt; display:inline-block } .s598389F7 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:center; font-size:10pt } .s687413F1 { font-family:Arial; font-size:10pt; text-decoration:underline; color:#000000 } .s569AF9F2 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; text-align:left; page-break-inside:avoid; page-break-after:avoid; font-size:10pt } .sC7EAD8B { font-family:Arial; font-weight:bold; text-decoration:underline } .s33141CA1 { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; page-break-inside:avoid; page-break-after:avoid; font-size:10pt } .sF6A12959 { width:33%; height:1px; text-align:left } .s5FFF0A7E { margin-top:0pt; margin-bottom:0pt; font-size:8pt } .sCC018295 { font-family:Arial; font-size:5.33pt; vertical-align:super; color:#0069d6 } 350 28.04.2010   Press release issued by the Registrar   GRAND CHAMBER HEARING PAKSAS v. LITHUANIA   The European Court of Human Rights is holding a Grand Chamber hearing today Wednesday 28   April 2010 at 9.15 a.m. , on the admissibility and merits in the case of Paksas v. Lithuania (application no. 34932/04).   The hearing will be broadcast from 2.30 p.m. on the Court’s Internet site ( http://www.echr.coe.int ).     The applicant, Mr Rolandas Paksas, is a Lithuanian national who was born in 1956 and lives in Vilnius. On 5 January 2003 he was elected President of the Republic of Lithuania. The case concerns his impeachment on 6 April 2004 by the Seimas (Lithuanian Parliament) for gross violations of the Constitution.   The Constitutional Court found, among other things, that the applicant had illegally granted Lithuanian citizenship to a Russian businessman living in Lithuania to reward him for his financial support during the presidential election campaign, and that he had disclosed official secrets to the businessman by informing him that he was under investigation and that his telephone was being tapped.   On 22 April 2004 the Central Election Commission (“CEC”) expressed the opinion that there was nothing to prevent the applicant standing again for the office of president in the elections that followed his impeachment. However, on 4 May 2004 the Seimas adopted a new provision in the Presidential Elections Act according to which a person who had been removed from office in impeachment proceedings could not be elected President of the Republic unless 5 years had elapsed (as a result of which the CEC finally refused to register the applicant’s candidature). The matter was referred by some MPs to the Constitutional Court, which held that to ban an impeached person from standing for election was compatible with the Constitution but that it was anti-constitutional to set a time-bar. On 15 July 2004 the Seimas passed an amendment to the Parliamentary Elections Act, which entrenched the ban on becoming a Member of Parliament for anyone who had been removed from office as a result of an impeachment.   Furthermore, criminal proceedings were brought against the applicant on a charge of disclosing information classified as an official secret, but he was ultimately acquitted.   The application was lodged before the European Court of Human Rights on 27   September   2004; on 1   December 2009 the Chamber to which the case had been assigned relinquished jurisdiction in favour of the Grand Chamber [1] . Relying on Article 6 § 1 (right to a fair hearing) of the Convention, Mr Paksas complains that the Constitutional Court lacked impartiality in the proceedings against him and overstepped its role in the proceedings concerning the constitutional violations of which he was accused. He further complains that his right to be presumed innocent, under Article 6 § 2, was breached in a number of respects. In addition, under Article 7 (no punishment without law), the applicant complains that the impeachment proceedings followed by criminal proceedings amounted to being charged twice with the same offence. Lastly, under Article 3 of Protocol No. 1 (right to free elections), he complains that an amendment to the electoral law was arbitrarily intended to exclude him from future appointment to presidential office and that his lifelong disqualification from becoming an MP constitutes a denial of the very essence of free elections.   The case will be heard by the Grand Chamber composed as follows:   Jean-Paul Costa (France), President , Christos Rozakis (Greece), Nicolas Bratza (the United Kingdom), Peer Lorenzen (Denmark), Françoise Tulkens (Belgium), Josep Casadevall (Andorra), Ireneu Cabral Barreto (Portugal) Lech Garlicki (Poland), Dean Spielmann (Luxembourg), Renate Jaeger (Germany), Egbert Myjer (the Netherlands), Sverre Erik Jebens (Norway), David Thór Björgvinsson (Iceland), Dragoljub Popović (Serbia), Nona Tsotsoria (Georgia), Işıl Karakaş (Turkey), judges András Baka (Hungary), ad hoc judge , Luis López Guerra (Spain), Ledi Bianku (Albania), Ljiljana Mijović (Bosnia and Herzegovina), substitute judges , and also Michael O’Boyle , Deputy Registrar .   Representatives of the parties   Government :   Elvyra Baltutytė , Agent ,   Karolina Bubnytė-Montvydienė, Co-Agent ,   Eivid Smith and Darius Žalimas , Counsels ; Applicant :   Eugen Salpius , Counsel , and Rolandas Paksas , Applicant .   *** After the hearing the Court will begin its deliberations, which will be held in private. Its ruling in the case will, however, be made at a later stage.   The press release is a document produced by the Registry. It does not bind the Court. Decisions, judgments and further information about the Court can be found on its Internet site ( http://www.echr.coe.int ). To subscribe to the Court’s press releases: http://www.echr.coe.int/ECHR/RSS.aspx .   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) Kristina Pencheva-Malinowski (telephone : 00 33 (0)3 88 41 35 70) Céline Menu-Lange (telephone : 00 33 (0)3 90 21 58 77) Frédéric Dolt (telephone : 00 33 (0)3 90 21 53 39) Nina Salomon (telephone: 00 33 (0)3 90 21 49 79)   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] In application of Article 30, 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.