Published on 12 June 2023

FOURTH SECTION

Application no. 12899/21 Ioan MARCU against Romania lodged on 17 February 2021 communicated on 22 May 2023

SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE

The application concerns allegations that in the night of 5/6 July 2016 the applicant, who was apprehended at about 11 p.m. by the gendarmes, was unlawfully taken to, and kept in the Lugoj gendarmerie station from about 1 a.m. to 4.20 a.m., under suspicion of poaching and non-compliance with the weapons and ammunition regime. During his stay in the gendarmerie station his identity papers were verified, and his hunting rifles inspected and then confiscated. Eventually he was allowed to leave the station, without any preventive measure being taken against him. He lodged a criminal complaint against the gendarmes, accusing them of unlawful detention and abusive behaviour, which was dismissed as unfounded in a final decision of 8 December 2020 of the Cluj Military Tribunal.

Relying on Article 5 of the Convention, the applicant complains that he had been unlawfully detained in the night of 5/6 July 2016 from 11 p.m. to 4.20 a.m.

QUESTION TO THE PARTIES

Was the applicant deprived of his liberty in breach of Article 5 § 1 of the Convention, in the night of 5/6 July 2016, in the Lugoj gendarmerie station (see notably Creangă v. Romania [GC], no. 29226/03, §§ 84 and 101, 23 February 2012, Hoalgă and Others v. Romania , no. 76672/12, §§ 107 ‑ 08, 15 March 2016, Aftanache v. Romania , no. 999/19, §§ 81-83 and 89-91, 26 May 2020, Khalikova v. Azerbaijan , no. 42883/11, §§ 97 ‑ 100, 22 October 2015, Zelčs v. Latvia , no. 65367/16, §§ 34 ‑ 36 and 57, 20 February 2020, and Tsvetkova and Others v. Russia , nos. 54381/08 and 5 others, §§ 107-08, 10 April 2018)?