Information Note on the Court’s case-law 69

November 2004

Del Latte v. the Netherlands - 44760/98

Judgment 9.11.2004 [Section II]

Article 6

Article 6-2

Presumption of innocence

Statements of a court reflecting a finding of guilt despite acquittal in criminal proceedings: violation

Facts : The applicants were taken into police custody and charged with attempted murder. The trial court acquitted them of the charges and ordered their immediate release from detention on remand. The applicants subsequently applied to the Court of Appeal seeking monetary compensation for the time they had spent in pre-trial detention. The Court of Appeal dismissed the claim, find ing there were no reasons in equity to award compensation to the applicants. In its reasoning the court also stated that had the indictment contained a charge of threats to life in addition to attempted murder, the applicants would have been convicted.

La w : Article 6 § 2 (presumption of innocence) – The Court of Appeal’s decision refusing compensation had been based on the consideration that the applicants would have been inevitably convicted if the prosecution had also charged them with “threatening to co mmit [a] crime directed against life”. In view of the applicants’ previous acquittal in the criminal proceedings against them, the approach of the Court of Appeal had amounted to a determination of the applicants’ guilt of an offence for which they had not been “proved guilty according to law”. Accordingly, there had been a breach of Article 6 § 2.

Conclusion : violation (unanimously).

Article 41 – The Court made an award for costs and expenses.

© Council of Europe/European Court of Human Rights This summary by the Registry does not bind the Court.

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