CONCURRING OPINION OF JUDGE DE MEYER

There could be no doubt that the confiscation order inflicted upon the applicant was a sanction following conviction for a criminal offence, and that it had the nature of a penalty.

Taking into consideration factors such as its "purpose", its "characterisation under national law", its "severity", or the elements involved in the making of the order referred to in paragraph 33 of the judgment, could not be "relevant in this connection".

I did not need these "other factors" (see paragraph 28 of the present judgment) to reach a conclusion which was, in my view, self-evident.

[1] The case is numbered 1/1994/448/527.  The first number is the case's position on the list of cases referred to the Court in the relevant year (second number).  The last two numbers indicate the case's position on the list of cases referred to the Court since its creation and on the list of the corresponding originating applications to the Commission.

[2] Rules A apply to all cases referred to the Court before the entry into force of Protocol No. 9 (P9) and thereafter only to cases concerning States not bound by that Protocol (P9).  They correspond to the Rules that came into force on 1 January 1983, as amended several times subsequently.

[3] Note by the Registrar: For practical reasons this annex will appear only with the printed version of the judgment (volume 307-A of Series A of the Publications of the Court), but a copy of the Commission's report is obtainable from the registry.