FOURTH SECTION

DECISION

Application no. 55057/16 Vasile MUNTEANU

against Romania

The European Court of Human Rights (Fourth Section), sitting on 29 June 2023 as a Committee composed of:

Tim Eicke , President , Branko Lubarda, Ana Maria Guerra Martins , judges ,

and Viktoriya Maradudina, Acting Deputy Section Registrar,

Having regard to the above application lodged on 4 November 2016,

Having deliberated, decides as follows:

FACTS AND PROCEDURE

The applicant, Mr Vasile Munteanu, was born in 1957.

The applicant’s complaints under Article 3 of the Convention concerning the inadequate conditions of detention were communicated to the Romanian Government (“the Government”).

On 24 February 2022 the Court delivered a decision in a group of cases, which included the present application (see Stoica and Others v. Romania (dec.) [Committee], nos. 39747/16 and 8 other applications), and decided to strike the application out of its list of cases in accordance with Article 39 of the Convention on the basis of a friendly settlement reached between the applicants and the Government.

On 31 May 2022 the Government made a request to restore the application to the Court’s list of cases, as during the enforcement of the Court’s decision they had learned that the applicant had died on 2 January 2020 and no heir had manifested an intention to pursue the proceedings before the Court.

On 2 February 2023 the Court decided, under Rule 43 § 5 of the Rules of the Court, to disjoin the present application from those to which it had been joined (see above) and to restore it to its list of cases, considering the fact of the applicant’s death.

By a registered letter sent on 10 February 2023 to the applicant’s address, the applicant’s potential heirs were notified that the application had been restored to the Court’s list of cases. They were invited to inform the Court whether they wished to pursue the application before the Court. On 3 April 2023 the letter returned to the Court with the mention: “recipient unknown”.

THE LAW

In the light of the foregoing, the Court concludes that the applicant’s potential heirs do not wish to pursue the application within the meaning of Article 37 § 1 (a) of the Convention.

Accordingly, the case should be struck out of the list.

For these reasons, the Court, unanimously,

Decides to strike the application out of its list of cases.

Done in English and notified in writing on 20 July 2023.

Viktoriya Maradudina Tim Eicke Acting Deputy Registrar President