4.  The applicant was born in 1946 and lives in Bucharest. 5.  In 1984 the house, which was the property of the applicant’s mother and was where they had been living was demolished by the State without compensation. Therefore on 18 October 1984 the applicant’s mother was authorised to take on the tenancy of Apartment 18 situated at 2 Valea Călugărească Street in Bucharest. 6.  On 25 March 1991 the applicant’s mother made a request to the O. company, a State-representative company responsible for the management of property belonging to the State, to buy the apartment under Decree-law no. 61/1990 and Law no. 85/1992 regarding the sale to the population of dwellings built with State funds. She died on 9 July 1993, the applicant being her only heir. 7.  On 26 January 1994 V.V. took on the tenancy of Apartment 18. According to the applicant, he was living in the apartment at that time.
On 29 March 1994 the applicant was evicted from that apartment, as he had no tenancy. The goods in the apartment were entrusted to the keeping of V.V., most of them being placed under a seal in one room. At the latest on 7 December 2000 the O. company demanded that the applicant take the goods removed from the apartment, as it had no suitable place to keep them. 8.  On 17 March 1994 the applicant requested the court to oblige both O. and R. companies, as State-representative companies responsible for the management of property belonging to the State, to sell him Apartment 18. 9.  On 11 May 1998 the Bucharest Court of First Instance allowed the applicant’s action, considering that he had inherited his mother’s right to buy that apartment, and ordered the two companies to conclude a sale contract with the applicant for Apartment 18. 10.  On 30 September 1999 the Bucharest Court of Appeal, by a final decision, dismissed as groundless an appeal by the two companies, which sought to declare the apartment governed by Law no. 112/1995, not by Decree-law no. 61/1990 and Law no. 85/1992. 11.  Although there had been judicial recognition of the authorities’ obligation to sell Apartment 18 to the applicant, the latter was not able to buy it, being informed that on 27 January 1997 the former had sold the apartment to V.V., the then tenant, under Law no. 112/1995. 12.  On 12 February 2001 the applicant requested the court to find the sale of Apartment 18 null and void and to oblige the authorities to perform the sale as provided by the judgment of 30 September 1999.
On 5 February 2003 the Bucharest Court of Appeal, by a final decision, dismissed the action, considering that the property was governed by Law no. 112/1995, not by Decree-law no. 61/1990 and Law no. 85/1992, and that V.V. had made the purchase in good faith. 13.  On 27 February 2002 the applicant lodged a criminal complaint against the two managers of the O. company for damaging his personal interest in the course of their duties as civil servants and for giving false information for inclusion in a document. On 5 November 2003 the public prosecutor decided not to initiate criminal proceedings because of the prescription of criminal liability. However, the prosecutor considered that the constitutive elements of both criminal offences had been met because, on the one hand, the apartment had been sold despite being the object of pending proceedings and before a final decision on the matter and, on the other hand, the two representatives had been in bad faith when they had signed the sale contract with V.V.