WITKOWSKI v. POLAND
Inadmissible
Nicolas Bratza
The applicant, Mr Marian Witkowski, is a Polish national who was born in 1952 and lives in Biłgoraj. He is represented before the Court by Mr A. Włoch, a lawyer practising in Cracow. The facts of the case, as submitted by the parties, may be summarised as follows. On 27 April 1993 the applicant was charged with the offence of trafficking in children and detained on remand. On 30 June 1994 he was indicted before the Zamość Regional Court (Sąd Wojewódzki w Zamościu) on the charges of trafficking in children and inciting third parties to give false testimony. The proceedings were terminated by the judgment of the Warsaw Regional Court of 23 September 2004, after the entry into force of the 2004 Act. On 29 September 1999, the date on which the application was lodged with the Court, they were pending before the Warsaw Regional Court. On 17 September 2004 the Law of 17 June 2004 on complaints about a breach of the right to a trial within a reasonable time (Ustawa o skardze na naruszenie prawa strony do rozpoznania sprawy w postępowaniu sądowym bez nieuzasadnionej zwłoki) (“the 2004 Act”) entered into force. It lays down various legal means designed to counteract and/or redress the undue length of judicial proceedings. Section 2 of the 2004 Act reads, in so far as relevant: Section 5 reads, in so far as relevant: “1. A complaint about the unreasonable length of proceedings shall be lodged while the proceedings are pending. ...” Section 12 provides for measures that may be applied by the court dealing with the complaint. It reads, in so far as relevant: “1. The court shall dismiss a complaint which is unjustified. 2. If the court considers that the complaint is justified, it shall find that there was an unreasonable delay in the impugned proceedings. 3. At the request of the complainant, the court may instruct the court examining the merits of the case to take certain measures within a fixed time-limit. Such instructions shall not concern the factual and legal assessment of the case. 4. If the complaint is justified the court may, at the request of the complainant, grant ... just satisfaction in an amount not exceeding PLN 10,000 to be paid by the State Treasury. If such just satisfaction is granted it shall be paid out of the budget of the court which conducted the delayed proceedings.” Section 18 lays down transitional rules in relation to the applications already pending before the Court. It reads, in so far as relevant: “1. Within six months after the date of entry into force of this law persons who, before that date, had lodged a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights ... complaining of a breach of the right to a trial within a reasonable time guaranteed by Article 6 (1) of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms ..., may lodge a complaint about the unreasonable length of the proceedings on the basis of the provisions of this law if their complaint to the Court had been lodged in the course of the impugned proceedings and if the Court has not adopted a decision concerning the admissibility of their case. ...” On 18 January 2005 Supreme Court (Sąd Najwyższy) adopted a resolution (no. III SPP 113/04) in which it ruled that while the 2004 Act produced legal effects as from the date of its date of entry into force (17 September 2004), its provisions applied retroactively to all proceedings in which delays had occurred before that date and had not yet been remedied.