Communicated on 14 December 2017

FIRST SECTION

Applications nos. 77805/14 and 77807/14 Nenad SHIPOVIKJ against the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Miroslav SHIPOVIKJ against the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia lodged on 10 December 2014 and 11 December 2014 respectively

SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE S

The applications concern the applicants ’ pre-trial detention in criminal proceedings against them on charges of abuse of office. The applicants were detained on 9 and 15 October 2013, respectively. Their detention was extended on several occasions, until their release on 17 June 2014. It was based initially on the risk of interference with the investigation, and of reoffending and absconding, the latter being the only ground invoked by the courts after 3 January 2014, the date when the formal act of indictment was lodged. The second applicant (Chairman of Skopje Municipal Council at the time) was arrested, several days after the detention order had been made, at Vienna airport while, as he asserted, he was coming back from the United States of America in order to attend the trial. The extension orders used identical language, mostly referring to the nature of the offence and the severity of the potential penalty.

The applicants ’ requests for release on bail were dismissed since the proposed amounts (EUR 139,888 and EUR 254,340) were regarded by the courts as insufficient to secure any compensation claim related to the criminal proceedings against them. Third parties (the applicants ’ friends and relatives) who had offered their property in bail withdrew the proposal after the trial court had informed them of the possibility, based on section 194(4) of the Criminal Proceedings Act, that the property in question could be used for settlement of any civil award made in the criminal proceedings against the applicants. No information is provided as to the outcome of the criminal proceedings.

QUESTIONS tO THE PARTIES

1 . Were the grounds given by the domestic courts concerning the applicants ’ pre-trial detention “relevant and sufficient”, as required by Article 5 § 3 of the Convention (see Buzadji v. the Republic of Moldova [GC], no. 23755/07, ECHR 2016 (extracts) and Vasilkoski and Others v. the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, no. 28169/08, 28 October 2010)?

2 . Were the conditions imposed with a view of securing the applicants ’ attendance at the trial in conformity with the requirements of Article 5 § 3 of the Convention? In particular,

(a) Was the amount of the financial guarantees requested of the applicants disproportionate (see Mangouras v. Spain [GC], no. 12050/04, ECHR 2010)?

(b) Did the applicants have an effective possibility to obtain release on bail given the requirement specified in section 194(4) of the Criminal Proceedings Act of 2005 (see above)?

3 . Were the impugned proceedings compatible with Article 5 § 4 of the Convention, namely did the applicants have the benefit of an oral hearing before the first- or second-instance judicial panels that decided on their detention on remand (see A. and Others v. the United Kingdom [GC], no. 3455/05, § 204, ECHR 2009 and Miladinov and Others v. the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia , nos. 46398/09, 50570/09 and 50576/09, §§ 63-68, 24 April 2014)?

APPENDIX

1. Application no 77805/14

Nenad SHIPOVIKJ is a Macedonian national who was born in 1962, lives in Skopje and is represented by D. Kadiev .

2. Application no 77807/14

Miroslav SHIPOVIKJ is a Macedonian national who was born in 1955, lives in Skopje and is represented by S. Zikov .