Information Note on the Court’s case-law 56

September 2003

C. and D.L. v. France (dec.) - 55052/00

Decision 16.9.2003 [Section II]

Article 6

Article 6-2

Presumption of innocence

Obligation to surrender to custody prior to examination of a cassation appeal: inadmissible

The applicants were directors of a company which was placed in judicial liquidation in 1992. Following examination of the company’s account s, criminal proceedings were initiated against the applicants. By judgment of April 1997, the district court found the applicants guilty of financial offences. In June 1998, the Court of Appeal found them also guilty of misusing the company’s assets. The a pplicant were sentenced to terms of imprisonment, fined and disqualified from acting as company directors for fifteen years. The applicants appealed on a point of law. Under Article 583 of the Code of Criminal Procedure then in force, convicted persons wer e required to surrender to custody no later than the day before the hearing before the Court of Cassation, unless they obtained a dispensation. The applicants’ applications for a dispensation were rejected and they were thus required to surrender to custod y. The Court of Cassation dismissed their appeals.

Inadmissible under Article 6 § 2: The decisions whereby the applicants were convicted at first instance and on appeal were taken following inter partes proceedings. The applicants cannot therefore reasonab ly claim that those judicial decisions reflect the sentiment that they are guilty without their guilt having first been established and without their having had the opportunity to exercise their rights of defence. The mere fact that they were required to s urrender to custody before their appeals on a point of law were examined does not call that conclusion into question: manifestly ill-founded.

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

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