Update on Decisions of the European Court of Human Rights Affecting Criminal Law/Criminal Procedure
| Date | 01 September 2010 |
| Published date | 01 September 2010 |
| Author | Richard Lang |
| DOI | 10.1177/203228441000100309 |
| Subject Matter | Update |
New Journal of Eu ropean Crimina l Law, Vol. 1, Issue 3, 2010 403
UPDATE
UPDATE ON DECISIONS OF THE EUROPEAN
COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS AFFECTING
CRIMINAL LAW/CRIMINAL PROCEDURE
R L*
For ease of reading, certain cases have been omitted from this summary. ey are cases
solely concerning the length of proceedings, cases solely concerning the presence of a
militar y judge on the bench, cases solely concerning the censorship of letters, and other
“repetitive” or “recur rent” cases which disclo se no new point of law.
Klein v. Russia
Date of judgment: 1 April 2010
Violation of Article 3 if Russian authorities were to extradite Israeli mercenary to
Colombia, especially given the Colombian Vice-President’s comment that he should
“rot in jail”. Two judges dissented.
Ruokanen and Others v. Finland
Date of judgment: 6 April 2010
Applicants are two Finnish nationals, and one Finnish limited liability publishing
company. Mr Ruokanen and Mr Pöntinen are an editor-in-chief and a journalist of
the magazine, Suomen Kuvalehti. In May 2001, this magazine published an article
stating that an adult student had been raped in September 2000 by members of a
baseball team at a party to celebrate their victory in the Finnish championship. e
article was based on a statement given by the alleged victim; however, the young
woman did not wish to report the matter to the police. In October 2002 the public
prosecutor brought charges for aggravated defamation agai nst Mr Ruokanen and Mr
Pöntinen; a compensation claim brought by the baseball team was joined to those
criminal charges. In March 2003 the applicants were found guilty as charged and
were ordered to pay he y nes, as well as over EUR 80,000 in total in damages to
compens ate each membe r of the base ball tea m. e cou rt found in particular t hat the
statement made by the rape victim had not been reliable as she had not brought the
issue to the police’s attention and concluded that the accusations in the article had
* BA(Hons), LL.M. Of Couns el, Kemmler, Rapp, Bohlke & Crosby, Bru ssels.
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