site.btaECHR Issues 2 Decisions on Appeals from Bulgarian Citizens

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg issued decisions on two cases filed against Bulgaria, the press service of the institution said on Tuesday. In the first case, the right to privacy was affected, and in the second the right to property was affected.

In the first case, a Bulgarian citizen appealed that he was fired in 2013 after it was discovered that he had been fined for drunk driving in 2004. The ECHR assessed that the applicant's right to private life had been violated. The complaint notes that, by law, such registrations should be deleted within five years, without specifying whether this applies only to the physical information medium or to the electronic record as well. The applicant contested the possibility of indefinite storage and the provision of such electronic data. The court ruled that Bulgaria should cover the costs of the case, calculated at EUR 2,900.

In the second case, the applicant objects to the fact that his home was confiscated by a court decision in Bulgaria, after the regular payments on a real estate mortgage to a bank were violated. Since at the date of the confiscation there had not yet been a final court decision on the appeal, although a court order for payment had been issued, the ECHR ordered Bulgaria to pay compensation of EUR 5,000 euros and to cover the costs of the case for EUR 1,200.