VULETIĆ v. CROATIA
Inadmissible
Dmitry Dedov;Elisabeth Steiner;Julia Laffranque;Khanlar Hajiyev;Mirjana Lazarova Trajkovska;Ksenija Turković
1. The applicant, Ms Marina Vuletić, is a Croatian national, who was born in 1976 and lives in Zagreb. She was represented before the Court by Ms I. Bojić, a lawyer practising in Zagreb. 2. The Croatian Government (“the Government”) were represented by their Agent, Ms Š. Stažnik. 3. The facts of the case, as submitted by the parties, may be summarised as follows. 4. In December 1997, after a verbal altercation in a bar, A.B. attacked the applicant, causing a multiple fracture of her right arm. 5. The injury was characterised by a medical expert as grave bodily injury, and the applicant sought psychological help concerning the attack. 6. On 29 April 1998 the Zagreb Municipal State Attorney’s Office (Općinsko državno odvjetništvo u Zagrebu) indicted A.B. in the Zagreb Municipal Criminal Court (Općinski kazneni sud u Zagrebu) on charges of causing serious bodily injury. 7. On 26 January 1999 the applicant submitted a civil claim for damages to the Zagreb Municipal Criminal Court. 8. In the period between 22 October 1998 and 21 February 2002 several hearings were held, at which the trial court heard the applicant, A.B. and several witnesses, and obtained the relevant medical evidence. During the proceedings, the applicant assumed the victim status and was represented by a lawyer. 9. On 18 March 2003 the Zagreb Municipal Criminal Court adopted a judgment which was quashed on appeal by the Zagreb County Court (Županijski sud u Zagrebu) on 8 July 2003, and a retrial was ordered. 10. In the resumed proceedings, on 3 February 2004 the Zagreb Municipal Criminal Court terminated the proceedings against A.B., on the ground that the prosecution had become statute-barred. This decision was not served on the applicant. It became final on 7 March 2004. 11. In November 2010 the case file was destroyed according to the internal court rules (see paragraph 16 below). Only the decision terminating the proceedings was kept in the archives of the Zagreb Municipal Criminal Court. 12. On 21 November 2012 the applicant inquired in the Zagreb Municipal Criminal Court about the status of her case and was then served with the decision of 3 April 2004 by which the proceedings had terminated. 13. The relevant provisions of the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia (Ustav Republike Hrvatske, Official Gazette nos. 56/1990, 135/1997, 8/1998, 113/2000, 124/2000, 28/2001, 41/2001, 55/2001, 76/2010 and 85/2010) read as follows: Article 23 “No one shall be subjected to any form of ill-treatment ...” 14. The relevant provisions of the Criminal Code (Kazneni zakon, Official Gazette nos. 110/1997, 27/1998, 50/2000, 129/2000, 51/2001, 111/2003 and 190/2003) provide: Article 19 “(1) Criminal prosecutions for the purposes of applying the criminal legislation of the Republic of Croatia, ..., may not be instituted after expiry of the following periods, calculated from the time the offence was committed: ... - three years if the case concerns a criminal offence punishable by a sentence of more than one year’s imprisonment ...” Article 20 (1) The limitation period shall start to run from the date on which the offence was committed. ... (3) The statutory limitation period shall be interrupted each time a procedural step is taken concerning the prosecution of the offence. ... (5) The statutory limitation period shall start to run again after each interruption. (6) Criminal prosecutions shall in all cases become time-barred after expiry of the double statutory limitation period.” “(1) Anyone who inflicts grievous bodily harm on another or seriously impairs another’s health shall be sentenced to imprisonment for a term from six months to three years.” 15. The relevant provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure (Zakon o kaznenom postupku, Official Gazette nos. 110/1997, 27/1998, 58/1999, 112/1999, 58/2002, 143/2002, 62/2003 and 115/2006) provided: “(1) The president of the trial panel shall terminate proceedings and shall serve his or her decision on the parties and the victim ... when ... 2) he has learned that the proceedings cannot be continued for the reasons provided for in Article 353 ... (6) ... of this Code. ... “ “A judgment dismissing the charges shall be issued if ... 6) the proceedings have become statute-barred ... “ 16. The relevant provision of the Courts’ Rules (Sudski poslovnik, Official Gazette nos. 158/2009, 03/2011, 34/2011, 100/2011, 123/2011, 138/2011, 38/2012, 111/2012, 39/2013 and 48/2013) provides: Section 278 “... After the expiry of the relevant time-limit ... the case files shall be transferred from the common archives to the archives, that is to say given [for recycling] or destroyed.” Section 280 “The case files shall be kept in the common archives: ... five years after the final termination of the [criminal] proceedings ...”