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EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS   2.6.2006   Press release issued by the Registrar   FORTHCOMING GRAND CHAMBER JUDGMENT   8 June 2006   The European Court of Human Rights will be holding a public hearing in the Human Rights Building, Strasbourg, on Thursday 8 June 2006 at 9.30 a.m. (local time) to deliver its Grand Chamber judgment in the case of Sürmeli v. Germany (application no. 75529/01).   The press release and the text of the judgment will be available after the hearing on the Court’s Internet site (http://www.echr.coe.int).     Sürmeli v. Germany The case concerns an application brought by Mustafa-Selim Sürmeli, a 43-year-old Turkish national who lives in Stade (Germany). Since 1 July 1994 he has been in receipt of an occupational-disability pension.   In May 1982 the applicant broke an arm and his nose following an accident with a cyclist. After negotiations with the cyclist’s insurers had failed, the applicant applied to the German courts on 18 September 1989, in particular seeking damages and payment of a monthly pension.   The proceedings in the civil courts have comprised two phases. The first ended when Hanover Regional Court acknowledged the applicant’s entitlement to claim damages at a rate of 80% for the consequences of the accident. An appeal by the applicant against that decision was unsuccessful and his subsequent appeal on points of law was dismissed in December 1993.   The second phase of the civil proceedings concerns the assessment of the amount of the damages and monthly pension to be awarded to the applicant. It began in March 1994, after the case file had been sent back from the Federal Court of Justice to the Hanover Regional Court, and is still in progress. To that end the court took steps including the appointment of a number of experts and the parties entered into negotiations on an out-of-court settlement, which ultimately failed. During that phase the applicant had, among other things, objected to several of the experts and applied for the regional court judges to withdraw.   On 14 March 2001 the applicant lodged a constitutional complaint about the excessive length of the proceedings. The Federal Constitutional Court requested information on the state of the proceedings from the regional court, which informed it that it had scheduled a hearing for 9 July 2001. On 16 August 2001 the Federal Constitutional Court decided not to examine the applicant’s complaint, without giving reasons for its decision. A second constitutional complaint was dismissed on 27 June 2002 as being insufficiently substantiated.   In May 2002 the applicant applied to the Hanover Regional Court for legal aid in order to bring an action for damages against the Land of Lower Saxony on account of the length of the proceedings in the regional court. His application was refused at first instance and on appeal.   Relying on Article 6 § 1 (right to a fair hearing within a reasonable time) of the European Convention on Human Rights, the applicant complains of the length of the proceedings before Hanover Regional Court, which to date have lasted more than 16 years. He further submits under Article 13 (right to an effective remedy) that German law does not afford him a remedy in respect of the length of the proceedings. Lastly, he complains that lodging a constitutional complaint to that effect with the Federal Constitutional Court is not an effective remedy.     ***   Press Contacts  Emma Hellyer (telephone: 00 33 (0)3 90 21 42 15) Stéphanie Klein (telephone: 00 33 (0)3 88 41 21 54) Beverley Jacobs (telephone: 00 33 (0)3 90 21 54 21)   The European Court of Human Rights was set up in Strasbourg by the Council of Europe Member States in 1959 to deal with alleged violations of the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights.