3 DE CUBBER v. BELGIUM JUGDMENT AS TO THE FACTS I. THE PARTICULAR CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE CASE 7. The applicant is a Belgian citizen born in 1926. He lives in Brussels and is a sales manager. 8. On 4 April 1977, he was arrested by the police at his home and taken to Oudenaarde where he was questioned in connection with a car theft. Warrants of arrest for forgery and uttering forged documents were issued against the applicant on the following day, on 6 May and on 23 September 1977. The first warrant - notice no. 10.971/76 - was issued by Mr. Pilate, an investigating judge at the Oudenaarde criminal court (tribunal correctionnel), and the second and third - notices nos. 3136/77 and 6622/77 - by Mr. Van Kerkhoven, the other investigating judge at the same court. 9. Prior to that, in the capacity of judge (juge assesseur) of the same court sitting either on appeal (judgment of 3 May 1968) or at first instance (judgments of 17 January, 7 March and 28 November 1969), Mr. Pilate had already dealt with criminal proceedings brought against Mr. De Cubber in connection with a number of offences; those proceedings had led variously to an unconditional or conditional discharge (relaxe) (17 January and 7 March 1969, respectively) or to conviction. More recently, Mr. Pilate had had to examine, in his capacity of investigating judge, a criminal complaint filed by Mr. De Cubber (16 November 1973) and, in his capacity of judge dealing with the attachment of property (juge des saisies), certain civil cases concerning him (19741976). In regard to each of these cases, the applicant had applied to the Court of Cassation to have the case removed, on the ground of bias (suspicion légitime; Article 648 of the Judicial Code), from Mr. Pilate or from the Oudenaarde court as a whole; each of these requests had been held inadmissible or unfounded. 10. At the outset Mr. Van Kerkhoven dealt with cases nos. 3136/77 and 6622/77 but he was on several occasions prevented by illness from attending his chambers. He was replaced, initially on an occasional and temporary basis and, as from October 1977, on a permanent basis, by Mr. Pilate, who retained responsibility for case no. 10.971/76. 11. In case no. 6622/77, a single-judge chamber of the Oudenaarde court (Mr. De Wynter) sentenced Mr. De Cubber on 11 May 1978 to one year’s imprisonment and a fine of 4,000 BF. He did not appeal against this decision. 12. After preliminary investigations lasting more than two years, a chamber of the court (the chambre du conseil) ordered the joinder of cases nos. 10.971/76 and 3136/77 and on 11 May 1979 committed Mr. De Cubber for trial. These cases related to several hundred alleged offences committed