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X. v. THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY

Doc ref: 4483/70 • ECHR ID: 001-3128

Document date: July 12, 1971

Inbound citations: 1
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Cited paragraphs: 0
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Outbound citations: 1

X. v. THE FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF GERMANY

Doc ref: 4483/70 • ECHR ID: 001-3128

Document date: July 12, 1971

Cited paragraphs only

THE FACTS

The facts of the case as submitted by the applicant may be summarised

as follows:

The applicant is a citizen of Syria, born on .. April 1943. Since ...

1966 he had been resident in Vienna.

On .. July 1969, the Regional Criminal Court (Landesgericht für

Strafsachen) in Vienna sentenced him to four months' severe

imprisonment (schwerer Kerker) for attempting larceny. At the same

time, the Court ordered the applicant's deportation to Syria, and

revoked the suspension of a previous sentence to fourteen days'

detention. Furthermore, the applicant had been charged with seventeen

different traffic offenses.

After having served his sentence, the applicant remained in custody

with a view to his forthcoming deportation. It was then that he

addressed himself to the Commission, alleging that in Syria he had been

condemned by default to eleven years' imprisonment for political

reasons and that, therefore, deportation to his home country would have

serious consequences for him.

After his first and only letter of 9 February 1970, by which he lodged

his complaint, the applicant has not manifested himself again and he

failed, in particular, to reply to the letter of 19 February 1970 by

which the Commission's Secretary requested him to submit further

particulars about his case and to specify in what way he considered the

Convention had been violated.

THE LAW

The applicant claims to be a political opponent of the regime in his

country. He has submitted that deportation to Syria, as ordered by the

Regional Criminal Court in Vienna, would have serious consequences for

him, particularly since he had been condemned by default by a Syrian

Court for a crime alleged by him to be of a political nature.

The Commission, in accordance with its established jurisprudence (see

applications Nos. 4162/69, Collection of Decisions, Vol. 32, p. 87; No.

4436/70, Collection of Decisions, Vol. 35, p. 69), has observed that

although the right to be protected from extradition is not as such

covered by the Convention, the possible consequences to an applicant

of such extradition might in particular circumstances raise the

question of a violation of Article 3 (Art. 3) of the Convention for

which the extraditing country might be held responsible.

However, under Article 26 (Art. 26) of the Convention, the Commission

may only deal with a matter after all domestic remedies have been

exhausted according to the generally recognised rules of international

law.

While in the present case the applicant has expressly complained to the

Commission of the deportation order on the ground that he was a

political refugee, he has not shown that he has made any attempt to be

granted the status of a political refugee under the appropriate

provisions available to him in Austria, particularly under the terms

of the Federal Act of 7 March 1968 on Refugee Residence Permits

(Bundesgesetz über die Aufenthaltsberechtigung der Flüchtlinge). He can

therefore not be considered to have exhausted the remedies available

to him under Austrian law. Moreover, an examination of the case, as it

has been submitted, including an examination made ex officio, does not

disclose the existence of any special circumstances which might have

absolved the applicant, according to the generally recognised rules of

international law, from exhausting the domestic remedies at his

disposal.

It follows that the applicant has not complied with the condition as

to the exhaustion of domestic remedies and his application must in this

respect be rejected under Article 27 (3) (Art. 27-3) of the Convention.

For these reasons, the Commission DECLARES THIS APPLICATION

INADMISSIBLE

LEXI

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