LIBLIK AND OTHERS v. ESTONIA - 173/15 (Judgment : No Article 6 - Right to a fair trial : Second 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.

Robert Spano, President, Julia Laffranque, Valeriu Griţco, Egidijus Kūris, Ivana Jelić, Arnfinn Bårdsen, Darian Pavli, judges, and Hasan Bakırcı , Deputy Section Registrar ,

. On 13 September 2017 t he Government were given notice of the complaints concerning the length of proceedings and the retrospective justification of secret surveillance authorisations . T he re st of the complaints were declared inadmissible pursuant to Rule 54 § 3 of the Rules of Court .

. From 2 September 2004 until 2 January 2005 secret surveillance activities were carried out with respect to the third applicant in the context of ongoing criminal proceedings . The proceedings were later terminated without the applicant being prosecuted . On 4 December 2006 t he information obtained via the secret surveillance in those proceedings was put in the surveillance file ( jälitusprotokoll ) of the criminal proceedings under review in the present case.

. The surveillance activities were based on authorisation decisions issued by either a prosecutor ( forty-four authorisations altogether in respect of covert observation and requests for communication data) or by a preliminary investigation judge ( twenty-one authorisations altogether in respect of covert listening in on conversations and the interception of communications).