On 29 April, the Committee of Ministers ended its supervision of the execution of the European Court’s judgment in the case of Daugaard Sorensen v. Denmark.
The case concerned violations of the applicant’s right to protection from inhuman or degrading treatment and her right to respect for private life due to the withdrawal of charges against the applicant’s alleged rapist in 2021, in view of errors that had occurred at the Regional State Prosecutor’s Office, in particular the failure to comply with a short statutory time-limit.
Already prior to the Court’s judgment, legislative measures had been taken and the above mentioned short statutory time-limit, i.e. the maximum period for the reversal of the decision to withdraw or dismiss charges in criminal cases, was extended from two to four months. Furthermore, it is now possible to proceed with claims for compensation in certain criminal cases when there have been errors committed by the police or the prosecution service, if the error relates to the new four-month time-limit. The prosecution services and the police have also adjusted existing and adopted new relevant guidelines to avoid similar errors in the future. The new guidelines entail that the victim’s counsel, the victim, or the victim’s guardian shall as far as possible be contacted by telephone in connection with the decision to withdraw or dismiss charges in, inter alia, rape cases, unless special circumstances make this inappropriate.
