Update on Decisions of the European Court of Human Rights Affecting Criminal Law/Criminal Procedure
| Published date | 01 September 2013 |
| DOI | 10.1177/203228441300400311 |
| Date | 01 September 2013 |
| Subject Matter | Update |
New Journal of Eur opean Crimina l Law, Vol.4, Issue 3, 2013 319
UPDATE ON DECISIONS OF THE EUROPEAN
COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS AFFECTING
CRIMINAL LAW/CRIMINAL PROCEDURE
R L, Q R and B B*
For ease of reading, c ertain cases have been omit ted from this summar y. ese are cas es
solely concerning t he length of proceed ings, cases solely c oncerning the presenc e of a
militar y judge on the bench, cases solely concerning t he censorship of letters, and other
“repetitive” or “recurrent ” cases which disclose no new poi nt of law.
Nada v Switzerland
Date of Judgment: 12September 2012
Applicant is an Italia n and Egyptian national. He complained that a ban on his
travelling th rough Switzerland breached a number of his human rights, including
Articles 3, 5, 8, 9 and 13 of the European Convention. is ban resulted from the
addition of his name to the lis t annexed to the Federal Taliban Ordinance , which was
adopted by the Swiss Federal Council in implementation of a UN counter-terrorism
resolution. Mr Nada claimed that he needed to enter or at least transit through
Switzerland in order to receive medica l treatment, in order to attend fami ly events,
and in order to take par t in legal proceedings in both Switzerla nd and Italy.
In regard to Article8, the European Court of Human Rights wa s convinced that
the ban on the applicant’s movement did amount to an interference wit h his right to
respect for his private and fam ily life. However, as to whether this was necessar y in a
democratic society, it noted, on the one hand, that the threat of terrorism had been
particularly serious at the time of the adoption of the relevant UN Resolution, but
that, on the other hand, t he Swiss cour ts had found the allegations against Mr Nada
to be unfounded but had not communicated th is nding to the UN for over four
years, and moreover, the Swiss government had oered no assistance to Mr Nada to
seek a medical exemption from t he UN. Under these circumstances, Switz erland had
failed to take or attempt to ta ke “all possible measures to adapt the sanctions reg ime
to the applicant’s individual situ ation”. Breach of Article8.
* Richard La ng BA(Hons), LL.M , Ph.D is a Senior Lecturer at the S chool of Law, e University of
Bedfordshire , and is Of Counsel to K emmler Rapp Böhl ke & Crosby, Brussels. Qa iser Raja LL.B a nd
Bonnetta Brad y LL.B graduated fr om the University of Bedfords hire in 2013.
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