In the case of Mushegh Saghatelyan v. Armenia, the Court held that there had been several violations of the Convention.

The case concerned an opposition activist’s allegation of a politically motivated crackdown following a wide-scale protest against the presidential elections in 2008. He complained in particular that he had been ill-treated by the police, that his arrest had been unlawful and that the entire criminal case then brought against him had been fabricated. He had eventually been convicted for assaulting two police officers and illegally carrying a knife. 

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In the case of Solska and Rybicka v. Poland, the Court found a violation of the right to respect for private and family life on account of the exhumation of the bodies of the applicants’ husbands for the purposes of an investigation, despite the applicants’ objections.

The applicants are the widows of an association president and an MP, both of whom were killed in 2010 when the aircraft transporting the Polish President and senior State officials crashed on its way to a ceremony commemorating the Katyń massacre. Ninety-six people were killed in the crash in Smolensk, Russia.

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In the case of Lachiri v. Belgium, the Court has found a violation of the right to freedom of religion.

The applicant, who had been claiming damages under criminal proceedings, complained of her exclusion from a courtroom in 2007 for having refused to remove her hijab. The Court ruled that excluding the applicant, as an ordinary citizen not representing the State, had amounted to a “restriction” on her right to manifest her religion.

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The Court has declared the application in the case of Tuheiava v. France inadmissible.

The applicant, a lawyer and former Senator, complained of a visit by the Chair of the Bar Council to his office during his absence in the framework of disciplinary proceedings.

The Court reiterated, in particular, that while lawyers must have special protection in discharging their professional duties, it was legitimate for standards of conduct to be required of them, under the monitoring and supervisory powers vested in Bar councils.

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The Court will be delivering its Grand Chamber judgment in the case of Denisov v. Ukraine on 25 September 2018.

In this case the applicant complains that the proceedings for his dismissal from the post of President of the Kyiv Administrative Court of Appeal were unfair and not compatible with the Convention. He also complains that his dismissal was not considered by an independent and impartial tribunal, and that his private life was substantially affected by his dismissal.

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Webcast of the hearing (18/10/2017)

Cases pending before the Grand Chamber

President Guido Raimondi (Italy) was re-elected as President of the European Court of Human Rights. He has been a judge at the ECHR since 5 May 2010 and became its President on 1st November 2015.

His term as President will finish on 4 May 2019, at the same time as his mandate as judge.

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Composition of the Court

President's page

The Court will be holding a Grand Chamber hearing in the case of N.D. and N.T. v. Spain on 26 September 2018.

The case concerns the immediate return to Morocco of sub-Saharan migrants who attempted on 13 August 2014 to enter Spanish territory illegally by scaling the fences which surround the Melilla enclave on the North African coast.

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Calendar of hearings

On 17 September 2018, Cristina Lesnic, Deputy Prime Minister for Reintegration of the Republic of Moldova, visited the Court and was received by President Guido Raimondi. Valeriu Griţco, judge elected in respect of the Republic of Moldova, and Françoise Elens-Passos, Deputy Registrar, also attended the meeting.