issued by the Registrar of the Court
ECHR 015 (2025)
16.01.2025
Judgments and decisions of 16 January 2025
The European Court of Human Rights has today notified in writing 45 judgments1 and 59 decisions2:
two Chamber judgments are summarised below;
three separate press releases have been issued for three other Chamber judgments in the cases of
Bodson and Others v. Belgium (application no. 35834/22 and 15 other applications), Ioannides
v. Cyprus (no. 32879/18), and A.C. v. France (no. 15457/20);
a separate press release has also been issued for a decision in the case of Association confraternelle
de la Presse Judiciaire v. France (no. 49526/15 and 13 other applications);
The 40 Committee judgments, concerning issues which have already been examined by the Court,
and the 58 other decisions, can be consulted on Hudoc and do not appear in this press release.
The judgment in French below is indicated with an asterisk (*).
Ghaoui v. France (application no. 41208/21)*
The applicant, Ryad Ghaoui, is a French national who was born in 1986 and lives in Marseilles.
During the night of 14 to 15 April 2009 Mr Ghaoui was with another individual in a car park in the
town of Tours. He was carrying a sports bag containing more than 125,000 euros intended for drug
trafficking. Three patrol officers from the night dog squad entered the car park. Upon seeing the
officers, Mr Ghaoui and the other individual each returned to their vehicles to leave the scene. Just
after Mr Ghaoui had got into his Audi and started the engine, a police officer walked in front of the
car on his way to speak with him, while another officer stood beside the vehicle to provide cover.
Despite the first police officer’s signal to stop, the applicant drove towards him, injuring him in the
leg and foot. The second police officer, believing that the car would hit his colleague, fired two shots
in the applicant’s direction.
The applicant was seriously injured and became paraplegic. Several sets of criminal proceedings
followed.
Relying on Article 2 (right to life) of the European Convention on Human Rights, the applicant
complains about the finding that there was no case to answer for the police officer who had fired
the shots.
No violation of Article 2
1
Under Articles 43 and 44 of the Convention, Chamber judgments are not final. During the three-month period following a Chamber
judgment’s delivery, any party may request that the case be referred to the Grand Chamber of the Court. If such a request is made, a
panel of five judges considers whether the case deserves further examination. In that event, the Grand Chamber will hear the case and
deliver a final judgment. If the referral request is refused, the Chamber judgment will become final on that day. Under Article 28 of the
Convention, judgments delivered by a Committee are final.
Once a judgment becomes final, it is transmitted to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe for supervision of its execution.
Further information about the execution process can be found here: www.coe.int/t/dghl/monitoring/execution
2
Inadmissibility and strike-out decisions are final.
Tverdokhlebova v. Ukraine (no. 15830/16)
The applicant, Roza Borisovna Tverdokhlebova, is a Ukrainian national who was born in 1965 and
lives in Kyiv.
The case concerns proceedings which led to the applicant’s deprivation of her title to a plot of
farming land. She had acquired the land in 2013 from a private person. However, in 2015 the courts
found irregularities concerning the location and the right of disposal of the land. They thus
invalidated her title and restored the land to the village of Bohdanivka.
Relying on Article 6 (right to a fair trial) of the European Convention, she alleges that the
proceedings were not fair because she had not been informed of them and had thus not been able
to present her case to the courts.
Also relying on Article 1 of Protocol No.1 (protection of property) to the Convention, she complains
that her deprivation of property had been a result of mistakes by the authorities for which she
should not bear any responsibility.
Violation of Article 6
No violation of Article 1 of Protocol No. 1
Just satisfaction:
non-pecuniary damage: 3,600 euros (EUR)
This press release is a document produced by the Registry. It does not bind the Court. Decisions,
judgments
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The European Court of Human Rights was set up in Strasbourg by the Council of Europe member
States in 1959 to deal with alleged violations of the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights.
2