In the case of Sacharuk v. Lithuania, the Court held that there had been a violation of the right to a fair trial and no violation of the right to no punishment without law.

The case concerned the applicant’s conviction of abuse of office and of unlawful use of an official document because he had used another parliamentarian’s identity card to vote in parliament on his behalf.

The Court found that the applicant’s doubts as to the Supreme Court’s impartiality had been justified, and his request for one of the judges to be replaced should have been accepted. At the same time, the applicant could have foreseen that his acts constituted an offence under the criminal law in place, and the Court could not discern any flagrant non-observance or arbitrariness in the application of the law in question.

• Press release