2
BOUYID v. BELGIUM JUDGMENT
21 November 2013 a Chamber of that Section declared the application
admissible in respect of the complaint under Article 3 of the Convention
and the remainder inadmissible, and unanimously found that there had been
no violation of Article 3. The Chamber was composed of Mark Villiger,
President, Ann Power-Forde, Ganna Yudkivska, André Potocki, Paul
Lemmens, Helena Jäderblom and Aleš Pejchal, judges, and Stephen
Phillips, Deputy Section Registrar. On 24 January 2014, under Article 43 of
the Convention, the applicants requested referral of the case to the Grand
Chamber. A panel of the Grand Chamber acceded to this request on
24 March 2014.
5. The composition of the Grand Chamber was decided in accordance
with Article 26 §§ 4 and 5 of the Convention and Rule 24.
6. Both the applicants and the Government submitted further
observations on the merits (Rule 59 § 1).
7. The non-governmental organisation REDRESS and the Human Rights
Centre of the University of Ghent were granted leave to intervene in the
written procedure (Article 36 § 2 of the Convention and Rule 44 § 3).
8. A public hearing was held in the Human Rights Building, Strasbourg,
on 8 October 2014 (Rule 59 § 3).
There appeared before the Court:
(a) for the Government
Ms I. NIEDLISPACHER,
(b) for the applicants
Mr C. MARCHAND,
Mr Z. CHIHAOUI,
Co-Agent;
Counsel.
The Court heard statements by Mr Marchand, Mr Chihaoui and
Ms Niedlispacher, and the replies given by Mr Marchand and
Ms Niedlispacher to the questions put by judges.
THE FACTS
I. THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE CASE
9. The applicants were born in 1986 and 1979 respectively and live in
Saint-Josse-ten-Noode (a district of the Brussels-Capital region).
10. The applicants are brothers who live with their parents, their brother
and two sisters next to the local police station of Saint-Josse-ten-Noode.
They both complained that they had been slapped in the face by police