FOURTH SECTION

DECISION

Application no. 71808/12 Maria Gencheva IVANOVA against Bulgaria

The European Court of Human Rights (Fourth Section), sitting on 3 December 2020 as a Committee composed of:

Armen Harutyunyan, President, Jolien Schukking , Ana Maria Guerra Martins, judges,

and Liv Tigerstedt, Acting Deputy Section Registrar,

Having regard to the above application lodged on 5 November 2012 ,

Having deliberated, decides as follows:

FACTS AND PROCEDURE

The applicant, Ms Maria Gencheva Ivanova, was born in 1966.

The applicant was represented by Mr Y. Yordanov, a lawyer practising in Veliko Tarnovo .

The applicant ’ s complaints under Article 6 § 2 and Articles 8 and 13 of the Convention concerning an allegedly unlawful search of her office and statements of the prosecution authorities as to her alleged involvement in criminal activity were communicated to the Bulgarian Government (“the Government”) in February 2019.

In the months following the communication of the application to the Government, the Court sent letters to the applicant ’ s representative via the Court ’ s Electronic Communications Service ( eComms ), concerning the friendly-settlement negotiations between the parties, and then, in January 2020, a letter setting a time-limit for the Government to submit their observations on the admissibility and merits of the case. All these letters were accessed and downloaded by the applicant ’ s representative. His last connection to his eComms account was on 19 February 2020.

Since then the applicant ’ s representative has not connected to his account and has not accessed the Court ’ s subsequent letters, dated 24 June and 22 July 2020 respectively, by which the applicant was forwarded the Government ’ s observations on the admissibility and merits of the case and the translation of these observations. The former of these letters also invited the applicant to respond to the Government ’ s observations and make any claims for just satisfaction by 5 August 2020. However, no response followed.

On 8 September 2020 the applicant ’ s representative informed the Court that he had a new email address. A new eComms account was created for him and all previous letters were uploaded onto it. Another letter from the Court was sent on 6 October 2020, informing the representative that the time-limit for submitting observations on the admissibility and merits of the case had expired.

Once again, the applicant ’ s representative failed to connect to his account and to view any of the letters.

The applicant ’ s representative has not sought to contact the Court to report on any technical or other issue.

THE LAW

In the light of the foregoing, and in the absence of any special circumstances regarding respect for the rights guaranteed by the Convention and the Protocols thereto, the Court, in accordance with Article 37 § 1 (a) of the Convention, considers that it is no longer justified to continue the examination of the application.

Accordingly, the case should be struck out of the list.

For these reasons, the Court, unanimously,

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

Done in English and notified in writing on 14 January 2021 .

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Liv Tigerstedt Armen Harutyunyan              Acting Deputy Registrar President