34
NEUMEISTER v. AUSTRIA JUDGMENT
account in assessing the reasonableness of his later detention. Moreover it
is observed that the Austrian Government has accepted that the period spent
by Neumeister in detention after his second arrest, on 12 July 1962, should
be taken into account by the Court, although his Application was filed with
the Commission more than six months after the final decision on his first
request for provisional release.
7. The Austrian Government, however, has argued that the Court could
not consider Neumeister’s detention subsequent to 12 July 1963, the day on
which he filed his Application, as the Application could relate only to facts
that had taken place before this date.
The Court considers it cannot accept this view. In his Application of 12
July 1963 Neumeister complained not of an isolated act but rather of a
situation in which he had been for some time and which was to last until it
was ended by a decision granting him provisional release, a decision which
he sought in vain for a considerable time. It would be excessively
formalistic to demand that an Applicant denouncing such a situation should
file a new Application with the Commission after each final decision
rejecting a request for release. This would pointlessly involve both the
Commission and the Court in a confusing multiplication of proceedings
which would tend to paralyse their working.
For these reasons, the Court has found that it must examine Neumeister’s
continued detention on remand until his provisional release on 16
September 1964.
8. What strikes one first when examining the circumstances surrounding
Neumeister’s second detention is that, while his arrest on 12 July 1962 had
been provoked by the recent statements of his co-accused Rafael, the
Applicant, who had already been the subject of a long investigation, was not
interrogated again during the fifteen months which elapsed between his
second arrest (12 July 1962) and the close of the investigation (4 November
1963). On 21 January 1963, it is true, he was confronted with Rafael, but
this confrontation, which was interrupted after a few minutes, was not
recommenced, contrary to what was to be inferred from the minutes.
Such a state of affairs called for particular attention on the part of the
judicial authorities when examining the applications which Neumeister
made to them with a view to obtaining his release pending trial.
9. The reason invoked by the authorities to justify their rejection of the
applications for release was that mentioned in the arrest warrant of 12 July
1962, namely the danger that, by absconding, Neumeister would avoid
appearing before the court that was to try him.
In the view of the judicial authorities, this danger resulted from the
anxiety which must have been caused to Neumeister by the statements made
by his co-accused Rafael during his interrogations in January 1962 and his
confrontations with Neumeister on 10 and 11 July 1962; these had, they
argued, to such an extent aggravated the case against the accused and