BOUYID v. BELGIUM JUDGMENT
35
that if the Court were to consider that the restoration of the applicants’
rights as a result of a finding of a violation constituted insufficient redress,
the award under that head should be reduced to a fair level.
138. The Court considers it undeniable that the applicants sustained nonpecuniary damage on account of the violation of the substantive and
procedural heads of Article 3 of the Convention of which they were the
victims. Making its assessment on an equitable basis as required by
Article 41 of the Convention, it awards each of them EUR 5,000 under this
head.
B. Costs and expenses
139. As before the Chamber, the applicants claimed EUR 4,088.71 in
respect of their costs and expenses before the domestic courts. They further
claimed EUR 25,167.04 in respect of their costs and expenses relating to the
proceedings before the Court, that is to say EUR 7,051.42 in respect of
Mr Marchand’s fees and EUR 18,115.62 in respect of Mr Chihaoui’s fees.
They explained that they had agreed hourly rates of EUR 85 and EUR 125
respectively with the two lawyers. Furthermore, Mr Marchand had charged
them for thirty-five hours’ preparation of their application, approximately
thirteen hours’ preparation of their request for referral to the Grand
Chamber and approximately nine hours’ preparation of their memorial
before the Grand Chamber, and Mr Chihaoui had charged them fifty-one
hours’ preparation of their observations before the Chamber, sixty-nine
hours’ preparation of their request for referral to the Grand Chamber and
approximately nine hours’ preparation of their memorial before the Grand
Chamber. They produced various documents in support of these claims.
140. The Government, who did not comment on these claims before the
Grand Chamber, had stated in their observations before the Chamber that
they considered the hourly rate of EUR 85 reasonable. On the other hand,
they had submitted that consulting a second lawyer charging an hourly rate
of EUR 125 seemed unnecessary, and had consequently requested that this
part of the claim be rejected or, at the very least, that the same hourly rate of
EUR 85 be applied.
141. According to the Court’s case-law, an applicant is entitled to the
reimbursement of costs and expenses only in so far as it has been shown
that these have been actually and necessarily incurred and are reasonable as
to quantum (see, for example, Jeunesse v. the Netherlands [GC],
no. 12738/10, § 135, 3 October 2014). In the present case, regard being had
to the documents in its possession and the above criteria, the Court
considers it reasonable to award the applicants the sum of EUR 10,000
jointly for the costs and expenses incurred before the domestic courts and
before the Court.