In Aygün v Belgium [2022] ECHR 939 [in French], the applicants’ two sons had been murdered in September 2010 and in February 2014 a neighbour was convicted of their murder.

Throughout the investigation, from September 2010 to April 2013, the couple had been prohibited from transferring their sons’ bodies to Turkey, their home country, in order to bury them in the family grave in accordance with their beliefs, and their challenge to the refusal in the domestic courts had been unsuccessful. Before the ECtHR, they argued that the authorities’ refusal had violated their family and religious rights under Articles 8 and 9 ECHR. They also argued that they had not had an effective remedy in domestic law, contrary to Articles 6 and 13. Continue reading →