Communicated on 18 June 2020 Published on 6 July 2020

SECOND SECTION

Application no. 42168/19 Nikita GANÄŒO against Lithuania lodged on 29 July 2019

SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE

The application concerns alleged excessive length of the criminal proceedings against the applicant in which he was eventually acquitted. He instituted civil proceedings before domestic courts, claiming damages from the State for excessive length of the criminal proceedings (from 20 December 2010 to 16 May 2017), various procedural shortcomings, and restrictive measures taken during the pre-trial investigation, but his claim was dismissed. The courts acknowledged that the proceedings had been long and that the pre-trial investigation had not been “particularly intensive”, but stated that the case had been complex and of a large scale and that there had not been periods of complete inactivity.

The applicant complains under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention about the excessive length of the criminal proceedings against him.

QUESTION TO THE PARTIES

Was the length of the criminal proceedings in the present case in breach of the “reasonable time” requirement of Article 6 § 1 of the Convention (see, among many other authorities, Idalov v. Russia [GC], no. 5826/03, § 186, 22 May 2012, and the cases cited therein)?