Published on 2 February 2026
 
SECOND SECTION
Application no. 7563/22
Spiro RISTOVSKI
against North Macedonia
lodged on 28 January 2022
communicated on 13 January 2026
SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE
The application concerns the alleged failure to communicate to the applicant submissions made by the higher public prosecutor (dated 11 August 2021) in the appeal proceedings concerning the applicant’s house arrest ordered on the day he was convicted at first instance (26 July 2021).
The applicant complains under Article 6 of the Convention that the higher public prosecutor’s submissions were not communicated to him, in violation of the principle of adversarial proceedings.
QUESTIONS TO THE PARTIES
1.  (a) Was Article 5 § 4 of the Convention applicable to the review proceedings regarding the order for the applicant’s house arrest issued on 26 July 2021 (see Stollenwerk v. Germany, no. 8844/12, § 36, 7 September 2017, and Yılmaz Aydemir v. Türkiye, no. 61808/19, § 36, 23 May 2023)?
(b) If so, were those proceedings compatible with Article 5 § 4 of the Convention? In particular, were the proceedings before the Court of Appeal adversarial, in conformity with Article 5 § 4 of the Convention, in view of the applicant’s allegation that the public prosecutor’s submissions of 11 August 2021 were not communicated to him (see, mutatis mutandis, Miladinov and Others v. the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, nos. 46398/09 and 2 others, §§ 63, 64 and 67, 24 April 2014, and Mitreski v. the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, no. 11621/09, §§ 29 and 30, 25 March 2010)?
 
2. (a) Did Article 6 § 1 of the Convention in its civil limb apply to the impugned proceedings (see De Tommaso v. Italy [GC], no. 43395/09, §§ 147-155, 23 February 2017)?
(b) If so, was the principle of adversariness respected in those proceedings as required under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention (see Janáček v. the Czech Republic, no. 9634/17, §§ 46-54, 2 February 2023; Naumoski v. the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, no. 25248/05, §§ 25-28, 27 November 2012; and Grozdanoski v. the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, no. 21510/03, §§ 36-40, 31 May 2007)?