CASE OF TIBA v. ROMANIA
Violation of Article 5 - Right to liberty and security (Article 5-1 - Deprivation of liberty;Procedure prescribed by law);Non-pecuniary damage - award (Article 41 - Non-pecuniary damage;Just satisfaction)
András Sajó;Egidijus Kūris;Iulia Motoc;Krzysztof Wojtyczek;Marko Bošnjak;Paulo Pinto De Albuquerque;Gabriele Kucsko-Stadlmayer
5. The applicant was born in 1974 and lives in Oradea. He has been a lawyer since 1997. 6. On 11 December 2008 the National Anticorruption Department instituted criminal proceedings against the applicant and a police officer for traffic of influence (trafic de influenţă). The applicant was accused, as a lawyer, of having requested and received money from a client in return for persuading certain judges, other than in the context of the judicial proceedings, to adopt a favourable judgment in his client’s case. 7. On the same day the case prosecutor authorised several police officers to enforce a warrant to appear (mandat de aducere) issued in the applicant’s name on the basis of Articles 183 and 184 of the Criminal Procedure Code. According to the warrant, the applicant’s presence was required in order to be heard as a suspect (învinuit) in the criminal investigation instituted in File no. 206/P/2008. No other reasons or conditions were stated on the authorisation or the warrant itself. 8. On 12 December 2008 at 8 a.m. a police officer went to the applicant’s office in the city of Oradea to enforce the warrant to appear. According to the police officer’s report, the applicant was shown the warrant to appear and was escorted to the police station in the nearby town of Salonta. At 9.40 a.m. the applicant was handed over to two other police officers who escorted him to the Timişoara office of the National Anticorruption Department (T.N.A.D.). According to the escorting police officers’ report, which was signed also by the applicant, he was handed over to the prosecutor at 11.40 a.m. 9. According to the record of the statements the applicant made before the prosecutor, he was heard as a suspect by the prosecutor at the T.N.A.D. from 12 noon to 4.50 p.m. After the questioning the applicant was charged with the crime of traffic of influence. 10. According to the applicant, his phone, wallet and watch had been confiscated by the police officers and were held during this entire time. Moreover, he had been constantly guarded by the police. 11. By an order issued on 12 December 2008 the applicant was placed in police custody for twenty-four hours commencing at 5.10 p.m. 12. On 13 December 2008 the prosecutor’s request for the placement of the applicant in pre-trial detention for thirty days was allowed by the Timişoara Court of Appeal. The applicant complained before the court that he had been unlawfully deprived of his liberty from 8 a.m. to 5.10 p.m. on the previous day. He requested that the above-mentioned period be deducted from his time in custody. The court considered that it was not competent to decide on this complaint and suggested that the applicant should have used the procedure provided by Article 1401 of the Criminal Procedure Code. 13. The applicant lodged an appeal on points of law (recurs) against that judgment, reiterating that he had been unlawfully deprived of his liberty. On 17 December 2008 the High Court of Cassation and Justice rejected the applicant’s appeal on points of law as ill-founded without addressing his complaint regarding the lawfulness of his detention prior to his placement in police custody. 14. On 12 March 2010 the applicant was found guilty with final effect and given a suspended sentence of four years’ imprisonment for traffic of influence.