Published on 30 January 2023

THIRD SECTION

Application no. 18978/18 Apostolos VLYSIDIS against Greece lodged on 17 April 2018 communicated on 9 January 2023

SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE

The application concerns civil proceedings initiated by F.R. against the applicant for defamation on account of the comments the latter did in the context of promotion of F.R. from alternate university professor to professor.

The applicant is a university professor. He participated in the three ‑ member advisory committee that would express its view on whether F.R. should be promoted from alternate university professor to professor at the National Technical University of Athens. The applicant submitted his report in which he expressed the view that F.R. should not be promoted. The other two members of the committee had opposite view. The matter was put to consideration to the seven-member election committee, which concluded that F.R. should not be promoted.

For the applicant’s statements included in the report, F.R. lodged a criminal complaint for slanderous defamation, which ended in the applicant’s irrevocable acquittal. F.R. also initiated civil proceedings against the applicant for the damage he allegedly sustained because of the applicant’s statements. The first-instance court, to which the applicant submitted the acquittal decision of the criminal courts, upheld the civil action against the applicant ordering him to pay 6,000 euros to F.R. The applicant’s appeal was dismissed by the appellate court, which held that the applicant’s value judgments had been based on false statements which caused moral damage to F.R. The subsequent appeal on points of law lodged by the applicant was dismissed by the Court of Cassation in its decision no. 1422/2017, finalised on 25 October 2017. The Court of Cassation considered that the civil courts were not bound by the decisions of the criminal courts and that no doubt as to the applicant’s innocence had been cast by the reference in the appellate judgment that the applicant had been acquitted by majority and that the appeal on points of law lodged by the public prosecutor against the acquittal decision had been dismissed on procedural grounds.

QUESTIONS TO THE PARTIES

1. Has there been a violation of the applicant’s right to freedom of expression, contrary to Article 10 of the Convention, on account of the civil proceedings in which he was found liable for defamation and was ordered to pay damages for the statements he included in his report for the promotion of a university professor?

2. Was the presumption of innocence, guaranteed by Article 6 § 2 of the Convention, respected in the present case, in particular, in view of the statements included in the civil courts’ judgments that the applicant was acquitted by majority in the criminal courts and that the appeal on points of law lodged by the public prosecutor had been rejected on procedural grounds?