CEDH · PRESS;HEARINGS;ENG — 19 mai 2010

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THE UNITED KINGDOM   The European Court of Human Rights is holding a Grand Chamber hearing today Wednesday 19 May 2010 at 9.15   a.m. in the case of Al ‑ Khawaja and Tahery v. the United Kingdom (application nos. 26766/05 and 22228/06).   The hearing will be broadcast from 2.30 p.m. on the Court’s Internet site ( www.echr.coe.int ).     The applicants, Imad Al-Khawaja and Ali Tahery, lodged two distinct applications which the Court decided to join. The cases concern the applicants’ complaints that their convictions were based to a decisive degree on statements from witnesses who could not be cross ‑ examined in court and that they were therefore denied a fair trial, in breach of Article   6   §§ 1 and 3 (d) (right to obtain attendance and examination of witnesses) of the European Convention on Human Rights.   Imad Al-Khawaja is a British national who was born in 1956 and lives in Brighton (United   Kingdom). While working as a consultant physician in the field of rehabilitative medicine, he was charged on two counts of indecent assault on two female patients while they were allegedly under hypnosis. He was sentenced to 15 months’ imprisonment on the first count and 12 months’ imprisonment on the second count, to run consecutively.   Ali Tahery is an Iranian national who was born in Tehran in 1975 and lives in London. He   was convicted principally of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, and later sentenced to 10 years and three months’ imprisonment.   The applications were lodged with the European Court of Human Rights on 18 July 2005 by Mr   Al-Khawaja and on 23 May 2006 by Mr Tahery . A hearing in both cases took place in public in the Human Rights Building, Strasbourg, on 8   January 2008. In its Chamber judgment of 20 January 2009 , the Court held unanimously in both cases that there had been a violation of Article 6 § 1 in conjunction with Article 6 § 3 (d) of the Convention concerning the decisions to allow statements from absent witnesses to be read at the applicants’ trial.   On 1 March 2010 the cases were referred to the Grand Chamber at the request of the United Kingdom Government.   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), Ireneu Cabral Barreto (Portugal), Corneliu Bîrsan (Romania) Elisabet Fura (Sweden), Sverre Erik Jebens (Norway), Danutė Jočienė (Lithuania), Dragoljub Popović (Serbia), Ineta Ziemele (Latvia), Mark Villiger (Liechtenstein), Giorgio Malinverni (Switzerland), András Sajó (Hungary), Mirjana Lazarova Trajkovska (“the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia”), Kristina Pardalos (San Marino), judges , Nebojša Vučinić (Montenegro), Alvina Gyulumyan (Armenia), Işıl Karakaş (Turkey), substitute judges , and also Michael O’Boyle , Deputy Registrar .   Representatives of the parties   Government :     John Grainger , Agent ,       David Perry , Victoria Ailes and Louis Mably , Counsels ,       Chris Munro and Nigel Gibbs , Advisers ;   Applicant :     Joel Bennathan and David Wells , Counsels .   ***   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 . To receive the Court’s press releases, you can subscribe to the Court’s RSS feeds .   Press contacts [email protected] Stefano Piedimonte (telephone: + 33 (0)3 90 21 42 04) Tracey Turner-Tretz (telephone : + 33 (0)3 88 41 35 30) Kristina Pencheva-Malinowski (telephone : + 33 (0)3 88 41 35 70) Céline Menu-Lange (telephone : + 33 (0)3 90 21 58 77) Frédéric Dolt (telephone : + 33 (0)3 90 21 53 39) Nina Salomon (telephone: + 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.