RAMKOVSKI v. "THE FORMER YUGOSLAV REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA" - 33566/11 (Judgment : Article 5 - Right to liberty and security : First Section)

This judgment will become final in the circumstances set out in Article 44 § 2 of the Convention. It may be subject to editorial revision.

Linos-Alexandre Sicilianos, President, Kristina Pardalos, Aleš Pejchal, Ksenija Turković, Armen Harutyunyan, Pauliine Koskelo, Tim Eicke, judges, and Abel Campos, Section Registrar,

. As regards the risk of reoffending, the panel took into account that the applicants were suspected of being part of an organised group that had been operating over a prolonged period of time, with assigned roles in business structures of already existing companies or companies which the suspects aimed to establish with a view to making unlawful gains. The fact that the suspects still held the same posts in the companies implicated in the criminal proceedings implied a risk of reoffending, if they were released.

. On the same day a three-judge panel of the trial court ordered another thirty-day extension of the pre-trial detention of the applicants and other accused. The extension was ordered on grounds of the risk of the accused absconding and reoffending. The panel provided the following reasoning:

"The State offered a settlement to Velija Ramkovski - compensation for the long pre-trial detention and violation of the presumption of innocence in the 'spider web' affair, in relation to which he has complained before the European Court [of Human Rights] - but he refused. Faced with the fact that the State will lose the case, the Government will change the legal provisions concerning pre-trial detention."