DELCOURT v. BELGIUM JUDGMENT 8 judges. In these circumstances, the presence of one of the members of the Procureur général’s department at the deliberations did not upset the "equality of arms" to the detriment of the Applicant. There was some inequality in this case but it worked to the advantage of Delcourt; unlike him, the Procureur général’s departments attached to the lower courts whose decisions were challenged in cassation did not have an opportunity to put forward their arguments in open court on 21st June 1965 (Article 34 of the Decree of 15th March 1815); those departments did not even avail themselves of their right to reply in writing to the memorial filed by the appellant on 20th May 1965. In the Government’s view, the Delcourt case cannot be compared with the Pataki and Dunshirn cases; the present case is closer to the Ofner and Hopfinger cases in which the Commission and the Committee of Ministers did not find any violation of Article 6 (art. 6). For the rest, the legislation in dispute is more than a century and a half old, in which time it has never been subjected to criticism in Belgium by writers or the Bar who are, however, most attentive to everything which relates to the rights of the defence. On two occasions, Parliament decided explicitly to maintain this legislation, the first time without any change (at the time of the passing of the Act of 19th April 1949), the second time in substance and after examination of the question from the point of view of the Convention (Article 1109 of the 1967 Judicial Code). These circumstances raise something like a presumption in favour of the compatibility of the legislation in question with Article 6 para. 1 (art. 6-1); they also show that the participation of the Procureur général’s department at the deliberations of the Court of Cassation does not open the door to abuse. As to Delcourt’s "new" complaints, they are inadmissible because they were not included in the original Application. The Government considers that they are in any event unsustainable; in its view, it is just because the Procureur général’s department is not a party that its submissions are made at the end of the oral proceedings without being communicated in advance to the parties. In its memorial of 17th July 1969 and at the oral hearing held on 30th September 1969, the Government asked the Court: "to hold that, having regard to the role which Belgian law confers on the Procureur général attached to the Court of Cassation and to his special position in Belgian judicial procedure, his presence in a non-voting capacity at the Court’s deliberations as expressly provided for in that legislation is not of such a nature as to violate the principle of ‘equality of arms’ where, as in the present case, the Procureur général is not himself a party to the proceedings as applicant; to decide in consequence that, in the proceedings which took place in the Delcourt case before the Court of Cassation of Belgium on 21st June 1965, there was no violation of Article 6 para. 1 (art. 6-1) of the Convention by reason of the presence of the representative of the Procureur général’s department, Mr. Dumon, Avocat général, at the deliberations of the judges".