2. Objection based on the alleged failure to file the Application within
a reasonable time
i)
Respondent's Submission
58. The Respondent submits that the Application should be found to be
inadmissible on the ground that it was not filed within a reasonable time after
exhaustion of local remedies. The Respondent contends that the Applicants
received the Court of Appeal's judgment on 19 December 2005 (sic) and the
Respondent deposited the declaration in terms of Article 34 (6) of the Protocol
on 29 March 2010. According to the Respondent, reckoned from the date when
the Respondent deposited its declaration, it was after four (4) years and two (2)
months that the Application was filed before the Court on 7 January 2015.
59. With regard to the second Applicant, the Respondent argues that the decision
on his Application for review of the Court of Appeal's judgment was delivered
on 12 June 2013 and as the Respondent had already accepted the individual
complainant mechanism under Article 34(6) of the Protocol on 29 March 2010,
this date, that is, 12 June 2013, should be the relevant date to calculate the
time under Article 56 (6) of the Charter. On this basis, the Respondent submits
that three (3) years and two (2) months lapsed when the Application was filed,
which according to the Respondent is not a reasonable time.
ii)
Applicants' Submission
60. On their part, the Applicants argue that the Court of Appeals' judgment was
delivered on 24 December 2009, but the copies of the judgment were served
on them about two years later, on 2 November 2011. Relying on the Court's
jurisprudence 10, the Applicants contend that the assessment of reasonableness
of the time under Article 56(6) of the Charter depends on the circumstances of
each case, and in the present case, given that the Applicants are both lay,
indigent, and incarcerated persons without the benefit of legal education or
assistance, their particular circumstances provide sufficient grounds for this
Application to be admissible.
10 Zongo and others Case (Preliminary Objections), para. 121.
18