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FOURTH SECTION

CASE OF ZĂICESCU AND FĂLTICINEANU v. ROMANIA

(Application no. 96389/77)

Art 8 (+ Art 14) • Private life • Discrimination • Acquittal of two high-ranking military officials previously convicted of crimes connected with the Holocaust, in extraordinary appeal proceedings not disclosed to the applicants, as Holocaust victims, or to the public • Results and surrounding context of proceedings capable of having a sufficient impact on applicants’ sense of identity and self-worth • Emotional suffering reaching the “certain level” or the “threshold of severity” required • Art 8 (+ Art 14) applicable • Principles developed in case-law involving anti-Semitic statements or Holocaust denial applicable in the present case • Significance of international-law background and of common international or domestic legal standards of European States • Retrials concerned a matter of utmost public interest • Retention of files relating to initial convictions and retrial proceedings kept by the secret services • Initial refusal to allow applicants access to the files without reasonable justification • Failure to bring acquittals to the public’s attention or make judgments accessible and findings and reasoning of acquittal decisions, could have legitimately provoked in the applicants feelings of humiliation and vulnerability and caused them psychological trauma • Failure to adduce relevant and sufficient reasons for actions leading to revision of historical convictions, in absence of new evidence, by reinterpreting historically established facts and denying the responsibility of State officials for the Holocaust, contrary to international law principles • Authorities’ actions excessive and could not be justified as “necessary in a democratic society”

Art 34 • Victim • Not necessary to establish a direct connection between acts committed by the two military officials and the applicants, as crimes at issue directed against a whole group of people and given applicants’ personal fate • Applicants could claim to have personally suffered from an emotional distress when they found out about the reopening of the criminal proceedings and acquittals • Applicants could be seen as having personal interest in proceedings aimed at establishing the responsibility of high-ranking members of the military of the Holocaust in Romania

Prepared by the Registry. Does not bind the Court.

STRASBOURG

23 April 2024