CASE OF GUMENIUC v. THE REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA
Violation of Article 5 - Right to liberty and security (Article 5-1 - Lawful arrest or detention;Article 5-1-a - After conviction);Non-pecuniary damage - award (Article 41 - Non-pecuniary damage;Just satisfaction)
Jon Fridrik Kjølbro;Julia Laffranque;Nebojša Vučinić;Georges Ravarani;Ksenija Turković
5. The applicant was born in 1978 and lives in Calaraseuca. 6. On 27 July 2005 the applicant was stopped by the traffic police for speeding. 7. By an order of 5 September 2005 the traffic police fined the applicant 60 Moldovan lei (MDL) (the equivalent of some 4 euros (EUR) at the time). The applicant did not challenge the police order. 8. As the applicant failed to pay the fine, on an unspecified date a bailiff applied to the Ocnita District Court to have the fine converted into thirty days’ administrative detention, under Article 26 § 5 of the Code of Administrative Offences (see paragraph 14 below). According to the bailiff, the applicant had been ordered to pay the fine by 28 February 2006; however, he had failed to do so and had thus acted in bad faith. 9. On 26 May 2006, at a hearing conducted without the presence of the parties, the Ocnita District Court accepted the bailiff’s request and ordered the applicant’s administrative detention for a period of thirty days. The document constituting the court’s decision was a pre-printed template which the judge had completed by hand with the specific details of the case, such as the names of the judge, the applicant and the bailiff, the relevant dates, the amount of the fine, the applicant’s address and the number of days of detention to be served by the applicant. It did not contain any indication that the applicant had been summoned to appear at the hearing. 10. At 8 a.m. on 12 June 2006 the applicant was arrested at home and placed in detention. At about 5 p.m. the same day he suffered a heart attack and was taken by ambulance to a hospital. He recovered shortly thereafter and was soon discharged from hospital. 11. On 16 June 2006 the applicant lodged an appeal against the Ocnita District Court’s decision of 26 May 2006, arguing, inter alia, that he had not been summoned to appear at the hearing of 26 May 2006, that he had had no knowledge of the decision of 26 May 2006 prior to his arrest, and that he had not been given a chance to contest the court’s decision before being placed in detention. The applicant also argued that the traffic police’s order of 5 September 2005 imposing a fine on him for speeding had been abusive because the police had no evidence to prove that it had been his car which had been caught speeding and not other cars on the road. 12. On 30 August 2006 the Balti Court of Appeal dismissed the applicant’s appeal, finding that the applicant had not challenged the traffic police’s order of 5 September 2005 within the statutory time-limit. The Court of Appeal did not respond to the applicant’s argument about the failure to summon him to the hearing of 26 May 2006. 13. It does not appear from the materials of the case that the applicant served the rest of the detention term.