Communicated on 27 August 2019

FIFTH SECTION

Application no. 26198/13 Vladimir Pelov STEFANOV against Bulgaria lodged on 28 March 2013

STATEMENT OF FACTS

The applicant, Mr Vladimir Pelov Stefanov , was a Bulgarian national born in 1973. After he passed away on 5 June 2018, his son, Mr Vladimir Vladimirov Stefanov , born in 1996, expressed a wish to continue the application in his stead.

The applicant, and subsequently his son, are represented before the Court by Ms Z. Stefanova and Ms I. Vasileva , lawyers practising in Sofia.

The circumstances of the case

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

On an unspecified date the applicant was convicted of robbery and murder and sentenced to a term of imprisonment, for offences committed in 1997. In 2011 he was granted early release from prison.

In September 2011 the applicant was arrested once again, after an armed robbery had been committed in the town of Botevgrad . During his flight the perpetrator had shot at police officers and had kidnapped persons. Different charges were brought against the applicant and he was placed in pre-trial detention. On 17 January 2013 he was placed under house arrest after it was shown that his health had deteriorated in prison.

Several days later, on 25 January 2013, the Minister of the Interior was a guest in a popular television talk show called Panorama . Commenting on the work of the judiciary, he said the following:

“What is important for me is that the institutions should work in the interest of the society. That they should abide by the rule of law. I can give you many examples which are astounding, [such as that of] Vladimir Pelov , you know that a year and several months ago he committed an armed robbery in Botevgrad . After that he ran away, taking unlawfully a car, and in the car there was a woman with a child. [H]e shot at the police officers. When we saw his biography it turned out that [...] he had committed a similar robbery of a jewellery workshop, after that he had also committed a murder for which he had received a twenty-year sentence. Ten years later he had been granted early release for good behaviour. One year after that, less than a year in fact, he committed this armed robbery in Botevgrad .”

The Minister continued then to criticise the applicant ’ s placement under house arrest by the national courts.

In a final judgment of 5 May 2016 the applicant was convicted for the robbery committed in 2011.

COMPLAINT

The applicant complains under Article 6 § 2 of the Convention that in his statement of 25 January 2013 the Minister of the Interior presented him as guilty for the offences committed in 2011, despite the lack of a final conviction in that regard.

QUESTION TO THE PARTIES

Was the presumption of innocence, guaranteed by Article 6 § 2 of the Convention, respected in the present case, in view of the comments of the Minister of the Interior concerning the applicant made on 25 January 2013?