EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN ACTION / Alla Tymofeyeva (ed.)

such reimbursement. The main intention of the provision is that states compensate persons only in clear cases of miscarriage of justice in the sense that there would be acknowledgement that the person concerned was clearly innocent. Adversely, this provision is not intended to give a right to compensation where all the preconditions are not satisfied - for example, where an appellate court had quashed a conviction because it had discovered some fact which introduced a reasonable doubt as to the guilt of the accused and which had been overlooked by the trial judge. The aim of Article 3 of Protocol No. 7 is to confer the right to compensation on persons convicted as a result of a miscarriage of justice where such conviction has been reversed by the domestic courts on the ground of a new or newly discovered fact. Therefore, Article 3 of Protocol No. 7 does not apply before the conviction has been reversed (see Matveyev v. Russia , no. 26601/02, §§ 38-39, 3 July 2008). As regards compliance with the guarantees of Article 3 of Protocol No. 7, the Court considers that, while this provision guarantees payment of compensation according to the law or the practice of the State concerned, it does not mean that no compensation is payable if the domestic law or practice makes no provision for such compensation . Furthermore, the Court considers that the purpose of Article 3 of Protocol No. 7 is not merely to recover any pecuniary loss caused by a wrongful conviction but also to provide a person convicted as a result of a miscarriage of justice with compensation for any non-pecuniary damage such as distress, anxiety, inconvenience and loss of enjoyment of life ( Poghosyan and Baghdasaryan v. Armenia , no. 22999/06, § 51, ECHR 2012). 1. No one shall be liable to be tried or punished again in criminal proceedings under the jurisdiction of the same State for an offence for which he has already been finally acquitted or convicted in accordance with the law and penal procedure of that State. 2. The provisions of the preceding paragraph shall not prevent the reopening of the case in accordance with the law and penal procedure of the State concerned, if there is evidence of new or newly discovered facts, or if there has been a fundamental defect in the previous proceedings, which could affect the outcome of the case. 3. No derogation from this Article shall be made under Article15 of the Convention. General principles of the Court and explanations Article 4 of Protocol No. 7 embodies the principle that a person may not be tried or punished again in criminal proceedings under the jurisdiction of the same state for an offence for which he or she has already been finally acquitted or convicted ( non bis in idem ). It must be stressed that this is not confined to the right to not be punished twice, but concerns only the rights to not be tried twice. When a single criminal act can be separated into several criminal offences, for example illegal transportation of drugs, punishable under a few legal provisions 1 , this Article does not preclude the separate offences being tried by the same court 2 . The expression “under the jurisdiction of the same State” sets limits on the application of the article in such a way that it is relevant only on the national level. However, there exist several conventions that permit the application of the principle at the international level. For instance, the European Convention on the International Validity of Criminal Judgments, the European Convention on Extradition, the European Convention on the Transfer of Proceedings in Criminal Matters. For instance, if an applicant NGO was established under the laws of Costa 1 The applicant was ordered to serve imprisonment in default for failure to pay customs fines, in addition to prison sentences for drug trafficking that resulted in two consecutive terms of imprisonment for the same offence. 2 Göktan v. France , No. 33402/96, § 52, ECHR 2002-V. Article 4 of Protocol No. 7 to the Convention Right not to be tried or punished twice

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EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN ACTION