[align=left]On 27th December, 1967, the Applicant withdrew his application for
legal aid.

The oral hearing was held on 2nd and 3rd April, 1968.

SUBMISSIONS OF THE PARTIES

Whereas the written and oral submissions by the parties may be
summarised as follows:

A. As to the length of the proceedings

I. 1. The Federal Government submitted on 28th February, 1967, the
following report prepared by the Bavarian State Ministry of Justice
concerning the question of the length of the proceedings:

"(1) Investigations by the Public Prosecutor
On 18th July, 1952, the Public Prosecutor, on a charge brought by the
brother of the assassinated against the Applicant, Graf Soltikow, on
4th July, 1952, instituted the investigations and indicted the
Applicant on this charge with Landgericht München I on 23rd March,
1954.
In the course of the investigating proceedings, the Public Prosecutor
had twelve witnesses heard by eight different courts (Amtsgerichte) in
the Federal Republic of Germany and one court in Paris. In addition to
this, written testimony was obtained from two witnesses who live in
Germany. It was impossible to take the evidence of all the witnesses
at one and the same time because at the beginning of the proceedings
their names were not yet known; for the evidence taken often contained
indications to persons who might come in question as witnesses to
testify in the matter, the subject of the investigations. The
examination of witnesses was also delayed because the investigations
necessary for tracing the whereabouts of certain witnesses took a
considerable time.

Another reason for the length of the proceedings was, besides these
time-consuming investigations, the applicant's complaint to the Public
Prosecutor General in München and, subsequently, to the Bavarian State
Ministry of Justice, about the initiation of the proceedings. To give
an example, it took nearly three months, before the applicant himself
could be heard, since he was not in Munich all the time.

After the public charge had been preferred by the prosecutor, the
applicant challenged the members of the 1st Penal Chamber of
Landgericht München I, the court having jurisdiction in this case, on
the ground of bias. This challenge was dealt with and dismissed in
proceedings before three instances, which lasted from 29th April, 1954,
to 7th December, 1954.

Apart from this, the applicant filed an application for a preliminary
judicial investigation. This application was dismissed by Landgericht
München I by a decision, dated 22nd January, 1955. On the applicant's
appeal, the Bayerisches Oberstes Landesgericht, by decision of 7th
April, 1955, ordered the preliminary investigation proceedings to be
opened for the purpose of clarifying the facts.

In the meantime, the court had given the deceased's brother leave to
join the proceedings as intervenor. This, too, was challenged by the
applicant without success. At this stage of the proceedings, the Court
(Penal Chamber) had ordered a judicial examination of three witnesses
in the Federal Republic and of three further witnesses in Paris and San
Francisco, respectively.

(2) Preliminary investigation by the court
The preliminary investigation by the court at first lasted from 2nd
May, 1955, to 13th March, 1956. The judge carrying on the investigation
ordered ten witnesses to be examined to be examined in the Federal
Republic and one abroad. Five witnesses, residents of München, were
examined by him personally; the applicant was heard by him three times.

The supplementary preliminary investigation subsequently applied for
the Public Prosecutor lasted from 18th July, 1956, to 5th February,
1957. The reason given by the Public Prosecutor for this application
was that it was necessary to hear three new witnesses for the defence
whom the applicant had named.

During this stage of the preliminary investigation proceedings several
witnesses were heard and the testimony of a witness living in South
America obtained. The judge secured information from the Institut für
Zeitgeschichte in München; he made enquiries with the Government of the
Land Schleswig-Holstein, and, finally, searched for the whereabouts of
the deputy president of the former Volksgerichtshof.

During these preliminary investigation proceedings, too, the witnesses
could not be heard all at once, since they became known to the court
only by and by.

(3) The trial proceedings before Landgericht München I
On 13th May, 1957, the Public Prosecutor applied for the trial to be
opened by filing the bill of indictment (Anklageschrift) with
Landgericht München I. By its decision of 10th July, 1957, this court
refused to open the trial proceedings on the ground that there was no
evidence proving that 'subjectively', i.e. from the applicant's
perspective, the elements of a punishable act within the meaning of
Article 189 of the German Criminal Code (paragraph 189 StGB) had been
present. On the immediate objection of the intervenor the trial
proceedings were opened by an order of Oberlandesgericht München, dated
7th January, 1958.

Before fixing the date of the trial, the Penal Chamber had nine further
witnesses examined. In addition to this, it had to decide on a number
of applications by the applicant for further evidence to be taken, for
the appointment of official counsel for his defence, and for a
reopening of the preliminary investigation proceedings.

The Appeal Court (Oberlandesgericht) of München rejected an application
by the applicant for a rectification of the order opening the trial
proceedings.

Finally, on 4th July, 1960, the date for the trial could be fixed; the
trial took place before the 5th Penal Chamber of Landgericht München
I from 14th November, 1960, to 21st December, 1960 the hearing going
on for 12 days. The applicant was found guilty of a misdemeanour of
defamation of the memory of a deceased person and sentenced to 5
months' imprisonment, the sentence being suspended on probation.

(4) The review proceedings (Revision)
On the applicant's appeal filed on 23rd December, 1960, the Federal
Court of Justice set the judgment of Landgericht München I aside on
procedural grounds on 3rd October, 1961, and remitted the case to
Landgericht Augsburg for reconsideration and new decision.

After filing his appeal, the applicant challenged, though without
success, three judges of the 5th Penal Chamber of Landgericht München
I on the ground of bias and also applied - again without success - for
a restoration of the status quo ante in order to be able to submit
further complaints in connection with his appeal.

(5) Proceedings before Landgericht Augsburg
The files in the applicant's case arrived at Landgericht Augsburg on
19th December, 1961. In preparation of the trial the Court ordered a
judicial examination of three witnesses in the Federal Republic and of
fifteen witnesses abroad (France, Israel, Italy). In addition to this,
a commissioned judge took the testimony of four witnesses; a fifth
witness was requested by him to make a statement in writing. He,
finally, called for the production of the "Grünspan-Files" kept with
the Federal Ministry of Justice, the Document Centre, and the Public
Prosecutor of the former Soviet Zone of Occupation.

The Court in Augsburg, furthermore, had to deal with several procedural
applications and complaints by the applicant and the intervenor.

In December 1963, the officially appointed counsel for the defence was
replaced by another counsel.

By decision of 13th March, 1964, the Court in Augsburg terminated the
criminal proceedings under Article 2, paragraph 2, of the Amnesty Act
1954 (Straffreiheitsgesetz 1954) of 17th July, 1954, (BGBl. I, page
203) on the ground that a sentence of more than three months'
imprisonment was not to be expected. But on the request of the
applicant who claimed to be innocent, the proceedings were resumed
(Article 17 of the Amnesty Act 1954).

Thereupon the Court informed the applicant's counsel on 1st April,
1964, that the trial was scheduled for June 1954 and requested him to
submit concise applications with regard to the evidence he wished to
be taken.

On 22nd April, 1964, the date for the trial was fixed for 9th June,
1964. It was intended to summon sixty-eight witnesses - eleven of these
from abroad (France, Italy, Monaco, Israel).

On 21st May, 1964, Landgericht Augsburg cancelled the trial date
because it had been found in the meantime that the then addresses of
several witnesses, who had already been named and some of whom had
already been examined at an earlier date, were unknown and because the
applicant had applied for further witnesses to be heard (some of them
from Israel, Monaco, Hungary), the names of some of whom had not even
been given. The Court considered that it could not do without
an examination of these witnesses and that in certain cases a
confrontation of these witnesses was necessary. In its view, a trial
without these witnesses being present did not premise success.

Finally, the criminal proceedings were terminated by Landgericht
Augsburg on 8th July, 1964, under Article 153 (3) of the Code of
Criminal Procedure (para. 153 (3) StPO) on the ground that the guilt
was negligible and the consequences insignificant."

In its submission of 28th February, 1967, the Federal Government made
the following observations on the different parts of these proceedings:

"Ref. paragraph (1): (Investigations by the Public Prosecutor)

(a) During the period 18th July, 1952, to 23rd March, 1954, fourteen
witnesses had to be heard in all. Not only had the whereabouts of some
of these witnesses to be ascertained, sometimes the names of new
witnesses cropped up and these had first to be traced. The courts
seized of these witnesses' examinations had to be provided with the
necessary material on record in each case. One witness was heard by
rogatory commission in Paris; it is generally known that it takes a
certain time for such letters rogatory to be dealt with.

It must be added that the applicant himself entered two complaints
against the initiation of the criminal proceedings and that the files
and records were needed for the consideration of those complaints. In
addition to this, the applicant's own hearing was delayed by nearly
three months as a result of his changes of address.

(b) After his indictment, the applicant challenged the judges of the
1st Penal Chamber of Landgericht München I on the ground of bias in
proceedings before the courts of the first, second and third instance.
These proceedings took until 7th December, 1954. In view of their wide
scope and the fact that the courts of three instances had to deal with
them, a period of a little over seven months cannot be regarded as
inadequately long.

(c) The applicant, furthermore, objected to the brother of the
deceased being allowed to join the proceedings as intervenor. This
objection delayed the beginning of the trial proceedings still further.

Ref. paragraph (2): (Preliminary investigation by the Court)

At this stage of the proceedings eleven witnesses had to be heard both
in the Federal Republic and abroad, some of them being witnesses for
the defence whom the applicant had named. These witnesses, too, had not
been known from the very beginning of the proceedings; their existence
an the necessity of hearing their testimony was not revealed until
during the preliminary investigation proceedings. The other
investigations made also consumed time since they had to be carried out
conscientiously. In addition to all this, the Public Prosecutor had to
acquaint himself, before the trial proceedings were opened, with the
contents of the quite voluminous record and files drawn up during the
preliminary investigation proceedings. The Federal Government is of the
view that if all these circumstances are taken into consideration, the
preliminary investigation proceedings, which lasted from 2nd May, 1955,
until 13th May, 1957, did not take an unreasonably long time.

Ref. paragraph (3): (Trial proceedings before Landgericht München I)

Also during this stage of the proceedings, Landgericht München I, and
also the Oberlandesgericht of München, where the intervenor had filed
an objection (Beschwerde) against the Landgericht's refusal to open
trial proceedings, had to examine in great detail all the material
piled up so far, in order to be able to decide whether or not the trial
proceedings should be opened. The mere fact that the trial took twelve
days shows what quantities of material had to be dealt with in the
proceedings and that this mass of material had also been decisive for
the course and the duration of the investigation proceedings and the
preliminary proceedings.

Ref. paragraph (4): (Review proceedings - Revisionsverfahren)

The reason why the Federal Court of Justice could not decide the
petition for review filed on 23rd December, 1960, until 3rd October,
1961, is also to be found in the large quantities of material that had
to be dealt with in the proceedings and in the fact that during this
time, the applicant filed two new applications, both of which were not
connected with the review proceedings immediately.

Ref. paragraph (5): (Proceedings before Landgericht Augsburg)

Up to 13th March, 1964, this Court alone ordered the hearing of
twenty-three witnesses, fifteen of them in foreign countries. The fact
that it was intended to summon sixty-eight witnesses for the trial,
which had been scheduled for 9th June, 1964, again proves what
quantities of material had to be coped with in these proceedings. The
pace of the proceedings was determined also by the difficulties
experienced in ascertaining the names and addresses of witnesses."

The Federal Government submitted that, with regard to the special
circumstances of the case and to the fact that many of these
circumstances resulted form the applicant's own conduct, the
applicant's complaint that the proceedings took an unduly long time was
manifestly ill-founded.[/align]