Sineiro Fernández v. Spain, UN Human Rights Committee (2003)

Date: 07 August 2003

The author of the communication is Manuel Sineiro Fernandez, a Spanish national sentenced to 15 years of imprisonment for drug trafficking and belonging to an organized gang. He claimed to be the victim of violations by Spain of articles 9, 14 and article 26 of the Covenant on the grounds that his sentence was not reviewed by a higher court, he did not have a council of his choice during his initial interrogation, he claimed that he was convicted based on only one evidence in violation of his presumption of innocence, his right to fair trial was violated as the higher court had to carry out a full review of the evidence, which also constitute a violation of Article 26 of the Covenant, as Spanish legal system provides for various types of remedies depending on the seriousness of the offence.

Considering the communication, the Committee revealed only a violation of Article 14 para. 5 of the Covenant, because the conviction and sentence of the author was reviewed only by the Supreme Court of Spain, a procedure that constitutes a partial review of the conviction and sentence. Other claims were recognized inadmissible.

Citation: Sineiro Fernández v. Spain (UN Human Rights Committee, 7 August 2003) UN Doc. CCPR/C/78/D1007/2001