European Court of Human Rights - Case of Brozicek v. Italy (1989) (excerpts related to Fair Trial (Right to a)) (English)
European Court of Human Rights - case of Brozicek v. Italy (1989) (excerpts)
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41. In the Court's opinion, it is necessary to proceed on the basis of the following facts. The applicant was not of Italian origin and did not reside in Italy. He informed the relevant Italian judicial authorities in an unequivocal manner that because of his lack of knowledge of Italian he had difficulty in understanding the contents of their communication. He asked them to send it to him either in his mother tongue or in one of the official languages of the United Nations.
On receipt of this request, the Italian judicial authorities should have taken steps to comply with it so as to ensure observance of the requirements of Article 6 § 3 (a) (art. 6-3-a), unless they were in a position to establish that the applicant in fact had sufficient knowledge of Italian to understand from the notification the purport of the letter notifying him of the charges brought against him.
No such evidence appears from the documents in the file or the statements of the witnesses heard on 23 April 1989 (see paragraphs 5-7 above). On this point there has therefore been a violation of Article 6 § 3 (a) (art. 6-3-a).