Human Rights: Papageorgiou v Greece

In Papageorgiou v. Greece the European Court of Human Rights, First Section held, finding a violation of Art.6(1) and (3)(d) of the Convention, at no stage of the proceedings did the courts dealing with the case examine extracts from the log file of the bank's computer or the original cheques,...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Criminal law review 2004-10, p.844
Main Authors: Ovey, Clare, Ashworth, Andrew
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Court decisions
Courts of appeals
Criminal procedure
Fraud
Human rights
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:In Papageorgiou v. Greece the European Court of Human Rights, First Section held, finding a violation of Art.6(1) and (3)(d) of the Convention, at no stage of the proceedings did the courts dealing with the case examine extracts from the log file of the bank's computer or the original cheques, or check whether the copies submitted to them corresponded to the originals; the Court of First Instance in fact ordered the destruction of the crucial piece of evidence in the applicant's trial, namely the cheques presumed to have been forged. The applicant's conviction for fraud was therefore based to a large extent on the photocopies of the cheques in question. However, the production of the original cheques had been vital to his defence since it would have enabled him to show that the instructions for the payments in issue had been given by other employees of the bank and that he was not guilty of fraud. A commentary on the case is included.
ISSN:0011-135X