The Committee of Ministers ended its supervision of the execution of the ECHR Grand Chamber judgment in Guðmundur Andri Ástráðsson v. Iceland. The case concerned manifest and grave breaches of domestic rules in the appointment procedure of one judge of the Court of Appeal that upheld the applicant’s criminal conviction.
Immediately after the ECHR’s Chamber judgment, no new Court of Appeal cases were allocated to the four irregularly appointed judges. In compliance with Convention requirements, four new judges were then appointed to the bench. Individuals who had their cases heard by one or more of the irregularly appointed judges have the possibility to apply for reopening of their cases. To prevent similar violations, guidelines were issued by the Ministry of Justice clarifying the legal framework governing the judicial appointment procedure and the involvement of national institutions (the Evaluation Committee, the Minister of Justice and the Parliament). The ECHR judgment has sparked a wide public debate and has been widely published and disseminated.
