European Court of Human Rights Rules Against Greece for Denying Fair Trial to the Church of Greece

14:59 21/1/2025 - Πηγή: Dikaiologitika

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled that Greece violated the Church of Greece’s right to a fair trial by imposing procedural requirements that effectively denied the Church access to justice.

The case concerned a 31.9-hectare plot of land donated to the Greek State by the Asomaton Petraki Monastery in 1978. The donation was conditional on the land

being used for a hospital project, which did not materialize within the agreed timeframe.

When the Church sought to reclaim the land, Greek courts dismissed its lawsuit as inadmissible because it failed to provide a certificate proving payment of ENFIA property taxes for the previous five years. This procedural requirement, introduced after the initial filing of the case, created insurmountable obstacles for the Church. According to its estimates, the taxes owed would have exceeded €500,000, a burden that the Court deemed disproportionate.

The ECHR emphasized that this requirement imposed a substantial barrier to the Church’s right to have its claim adjudicated. The Court criticized the procedural inequality inherent in the tax requirement, pointing out that the Greek State, which is exempt from ENFIA, could freely initiate legal proceedings without similar constraints. This disparity, the Court found, violated the principles of fair trial enshrined in Article 6 § 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

The Court ordered Greece to pay €6,000 to the Church for non-pecuniary damage but rejected claims for legal costs due to insufficient documentation.

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