THIRD SECTION

DECISION

Application no. 27973/05 by H.P. against Sweden

The European Court of Human Rights (Third Section), sitting on 20 September 2007 as a Chamber composed of:

Mr B.M. Zupančič , President , Mr C. Bîrsan , Mrs E. Fura-Sandström , Mrs A. Gyulumyan , Mr E. Myjer , Mrs I. Ziemele , Mrs I. Berro-Lefèvre, judges , and Mr S. Quesada , Section Registrar ,

Having regard to the above application lodged on 20 July 2005,

Having regard to the decision to apply Article 29 § 3 of the Convention and examine the admissibility and merits of the case together ,

Having regard to the formal declarations accepting a friendly settlement of the case,

Having deliberated, decides as follows:

THE FACTS

The applicant is a Swedish national who was born in 1941 . The Swedish Government (“the Government”) were represented by their Agent, Mr B. Sjöberg , Ministry for Foreign Affairs .

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

In 1995-96 the Tax Authority ( skattemyndigheten ) of the County of Jönköping carried out tax audits concerning two companies of which the applicant, on a consultancy basis, was the chairman of the board and the managing director, respectively. In audit reports, it considered that remunerations paid to the applicant had not been accounted for in his tax returns for the assessment years 1993-95. Accordingly, by decisions of 23 September 1996, the Tax Authority of the County of Göteborg and Bohus increased the applicant ’ s tax liability and imposed tax surcharges ( skattetillägg ) for the three years.

By judgments of 1 June 2001, the County Administrative Court upheld the Tax Authority ’ s decisions in so far as they concerned the applicant ’ s tax liability. However, it set aside the tax surcharges.

The applicant and the Tax Authority appealed to the Administrative Court ( kammarrätten ) in Göteborg. By judgments of 4 March 2003, the appellate court found in favour of the Tax Authority and thus upheld its decisions concerning the applicant ’ s tax liability and the imposition of tax surcharges.

By decisions of 27 January 2005, the Supreme Administrative Court ( Regeringsrätten ) refused the applicant leave to appeal.

COMPLAINTS

The applicant complain ed, under Article 6 of the Convention , that the length of the taxation proceedings had been unreasonable and that he had not been presumed innocent.

THE LAW

On 22 June 2007 the Court received the following declaration from the Government , signed by the Agent of the Government on 5 June 2007 and by the applicant on 14 June 2007 :

“The Government and the applicant have now reached the following friendly settlement on the basis of respect for human rights, as defined in the [Convention], in order to terminate the proceedings before the Court.

a) The Government will pay, ex gratia , the sum of SEK 90,000 (ninety thousand) to the applicant. Execution of payment will take place when the Government has received the Court ’ s decision striking the case out of its list of cases.

b) The applicant declares that he has no further claims on the Swedish State based on the facts of the [present] application.

This settlement is dependent upon the formal approval of the Government at a Cabinet meeting.”

By a decision of 5 July 2007, the Government approved the settlement reached.

The Court takes note of the friendly settlement reached between the parties. It is satisfied that the settlement is based on respect for human rights as defined in the Convention and its Protocols and finds no public policy reasons to justify a continued examination of the application (Article 37 § 1 in fine of the Convention). Accordingly, Article 29 § 3 of the Convention should no longer apply to the case and it sh ould be struck out of the list.

For these reasons, the Court unanimously

Decides to strike the application out of its list of cases.

Santiago Quesada Boštjan M. Zupančič Registrar President