DELCOURT v. BELGIUM JUDGMENT 4 13. In the Application which he lodged with the Commission on 20th December 1965 (No. 2689/65), Delcourt complained of the judgment of 21st September 1964 and the judgments on appeal of 17th March and 21st June 1965. Protesting his innocence and alleging the violation of Articles 5, 6, 7 and 14 (art. 5, art. 6, art. 7, art. 14) of the Convention, he presented numerous complaints almost all of which were declared inadmissible by the Commission on 7th February and 6th April 1967. On this last date, however, the Commission accepted one complaint which related to the question whether the presence of a member of the Procureur général’s department at the deliberations of the Court of Cassation was compatible with the principle of "equality of arms" and hence with Article 6 para. 1 (art. 6-1) of the Convention. In fact, the Advocat général, Mr. Dumon, was present at the Court’s deliberations in accordance with Article 39 of the Prince Sovereign’s Decree of 15th March 1815 which provides "... in cassation proceedings the Procureur général has the right to be present, without voting, when the Court retires to consider its decision". It may be observed that this Decree has recently been replaced by certain provisions of the new Judicial Code (Act of 10th October 1967) which was not yet in force when the Belgian Court of Cassation dismissed Delcourt’s appeals. The above-mentioned provision of the 1815 Decree has been re-enacted, in substance, in Article 1109 of this Code. 14. Following the decision of 6th April 1967 declaring this complaint admissible, a Sub-Commission ascertained the facts of the case. 15. Before the Commission and the Sub-Commission, the Applicant maintained that the presence of a member of the Procureur général’s department at the Court of Cassation at the deliberations of 21st June 1965 had violated Article 6 para. 1 (art. 6-1) of the Convention. Without disputing that there is a considerable difference between the respective functions of the Procureur général’s department at the Court of Cassation and the Procureur général’s department at the courts below, he stressed that in accordance with the law the former does sometimes appear as a party even though this did not happen in this case. Furthermore, the Procureur général’s department at the Court of Cassation does, in the view of the Applicant, exercise supervision over the Procureurs généraux at the Court of Appeal (section 154 of the Act of 18th June 1869); a very strong statutory tie, therefore, links him with them, his subordinates, even if in practice the supervision in question is nowadays rather discreet. Again, the Procureur général’s department at the Court of Cassation was, in the great majority of cases, the opponent - at any rate potential - of the convicted persons who appealed to the highest court in Belgium: the Procureur général usually submitted that their appeals should be dismissed and his opinion was nearly always adopted - as in this case - by the judges. Then the Applicant stressed that the Procureur général, after having developed his submissions at the