EIT:n suuri jaosto täsmensi taas "ainoan ja/tai ratkaisevan näytön" käsitettä

21.12.2015 | Oikeusuutiset

Markku Fredman

Euroopan ihmisoikeustuomioistuimen suuri jaosto on viime viikolla antamassaan tuomiossa täsmentänyt “sole and/or decisive” -säännön sisältöä ja äänin 9-8 katsonut, että kun silminnäkijätodistajien kertomukset olivat ainoa suora näyttö vastaajan syyllistymisestä rikokseen, eikä vastaajalla ollut missään vaiheessa mahdollisuutta suorittaa vastakuulustelua, oli vastaajan tuomitseminen näiden todistajien kertomuksen perusteella muodostanut oikeudenmukaisen oikeudenkäynnin loukkauksen.

EIT:n lehdistötiedotteesta:

In [a] Grand Chamber judgment in the case of Schatschaschwili v. Germany (application no. 9154/10) the European Court of Human Rights held, by a majority, that there had been:

a violation of Article 6 §§ 1 and 3 (d) (right to a fair trial and right of a person charged with a criminal offence to examine or have examined witnesses against him) of the European Convention on Human Rights.

The case concerned the complaint by a man convicted of aggravated robbery and extortion, who maintained that his trial had been unfair, as neither he nor his counsel had had an opportunity at any stage of the proceedings to question the only direct witnesses to one of the crimes allegedly committed.

The Court found that, in view of the importance of the statements of the only eyewitnesses to one of the offences of which Mr Schatschaschwili had been convicted, the counterbalancing measures taken by the trial court had been insufficient to permit a fair and proper assessment of the reliability of the untested evidence. In particular, although under German law the prosecution authorities could have appointed a lawyer for him at the investigation stage and that lawyer would have had the right to be present at the hearing of the witnesses before the investigating judge, those safeguards had not been used.