The applicant was remanded in custody and held in solitary confinement for extended periods to ensure that he would not endanger the proceedings by destroying evidence. During the investigation, a judge at the Copenhagen City Court made several decisions regarding his pre-trial detention, including under a provision requiring a particularly strong suspicion of guilt. The same judge later presided over the main hearing and participated in the conviction. During the appeal proceedings before the Eastern High Court, some of the judges had likewise previously ruled on the continuation of his pre-trial detention.

The applicant argued before the Commission that the detention was contrary to Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), which guarantees the right to a fair trial before an impartial tribunal. The Court found that there had been a violation because the judge’s earlier decisions on pre-trial detention – based on a very strong suspicion of guilt – could give rise to objectively justified doubts as to the judge’s impartiality.