Saturday, 5 July 2008

Dramatic Torture Ruling by European Court

The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights, in Gäfgen v. Germany, has dismissed an application by a criminal who was tortured by police in order to obtain information about the location of a child that he had kidnapped: http://cmiskp.echr.coe.int////tkp197/viewhbkm.asp?action=open&table=F69A27FD8FB86142BF01C1166DEA398649&key=71386&sessionId=4507150&skin=hudoc-en&attachment=true. It is about as close as we come to the ‘ticking bomb’ scenario. The Court ruled that although a violation had been committed, the applicant was no longer a ‘victim’. One blog calls it ‘one of the most difficult cases’ the Court has had to adjudicate: http://echrblog.blogspot.com/2008/07/evidence-obtained-through-violation-of.html.
This will be a great case to discuss at our regular doctoral seminars, when we start them up again in September.

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