In 2003, the applicant, Magnus Gäfgen, was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of J., the eleven year old son, of a rich bankers family from Frankfurt am Main. Gäfgen had lured the boy into his home and subsequently killed him. That same day he dropped the corpse of the boy into a pond. He had then demanded a ransom of one million euros from the family, without disclosing that J. was already dead. Shortly after picking up the ransom, Gäfgen was arrested.

The case centres on what occurred next: thinking that the boy was still alive but in grave danger, the police officers questioning Gäfgen threatened him with considerable pain if he did not reveal where the child was. As a result, Gäfgen disclosed where the corpse could be found. At the start of the trial, Gäfgen complained that his confession had been made under the threat of torture.

The Court first concluded that the threat, would it have been carried out, would have amounted to torture and that a threat of torture amounted to inhuman treatment. The threat itself, however, was not torture.

the Court finds that the treatment the applicant was threatened with would, if carried out, amount to torture. However, the questioning lasted for some ten minutes only and, as was established in the criminal proceedings against the police officers (...), took place in an atmosphere of heightened tension and emotions owing to the fact that the police officers, who were completely exhausted and under extreme pressure, believed that they had only a few hours to save J.'s life, elements which can be regarded as mitigating factors...

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said Monday the government would press ahead with plans to fingerprint ethnic Roma, including children - a move branded as discriminatory by European Union officials. Frattini - the EU's top justice official before he joined Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's cabinet - was commenting on remarks made Sunday by Interior Minister Roberto Maroni, who described critics of the plan as "hypocrites."

"I think Minister Maroni has done well to continue on the path he has outlined," Frattini said. "We are not talking of raids (against Roma communities) or anything of the sort, but a measure to identify those living in our country."

"These things are being done by many other countries in Europe without causing any scandal, and as such, they should also be done here," Frattini added.

The measure, according to Frattini, would serve to protect Roma children, who often live in shanty settlements and are not registered to attend school.

Maroni, who is from the anti-immigration Northern League wants to include the fingerprinting in a security package designed to crack down on illegal immigrants and child beggars, many of whom are ethnic Roma (colloquially known as gypsies).

The plan has drawn widespread criticism including from Catholic and United Nations officials, human rights groups and Italian opposition parties.

Last week a spokesman for the European Commission, the EU executive, said member states singling out an ethnic group for fingerprinting would be breaking EU rules.

The United States and the European Union are nearing completion of an agreement allowing law enforcement and security agencies to obtain private information — like credit card transactions, travel histories and Internet browsing habits — about people on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.

Europe's top rights body, the Council of Europe, on Friday voiced "deep concern" at a series of recent attacks against the Roma gypsies and immigrants and their treatment in Italy.

The attacks, the worst of which involved the torching by a local mob last month of a gypsy camp outside Naples have already drawn criticism from the European Union and from rights groups. Copycat attacks followed in other cities.

Police arrested several hundred 'undocumented' immigrants last month in a controversial series of raids on shanty towns across Italy.

"Roma and immigrants have been the subject of violent racist attacks and entire communities have been held responsible for criminal acts committed, or allegedly committed, by individuals from these communities," the Council of Europe's racism and xenophobia monitoring body (ECRI) said in a statement.

"In the context, ECRI particularly regrets the persistent racist and xenophobic discourse by some Italian politicians, even at the highest levels, and in the media," the statement continued.

The new conservative government in Italy, led by prime minister Silvio Berlusconi vowed to clamp down on illegal immigration. Special Roma Gypsy commissioners have been appointed in several of the country's major cities.

Under a planned government decree, EU citizens - which would include Romanian Gypsies - must have adequate housing and regular incomes to stay in Italy for more than three months.

The decree would also make it easier to expel illegal immigrants.

"The Italian authorities are taking measure whose conformity with national and international human rights standards is questionable," said ECRI.

A survey earlier this month by Italian research institute Demos-Coop, showed eight out of ten Italians want Roma Gypsy camps dismantled.

A poll last month by Italian daily La Repubblica found that 68 percent of Italians want to deal with the "Roma Gypsy problem" by expelling all of them.

Local activists in the northeastern Italian city of Mestre and politicians from the anti-immigrant Northern League are protesting the construction of a settlement for Sinti Gypsies.

Northern League parliamentarian Corrado Callegari and local party councillor Alberto Mazzonetto have blocked access to the camp, preventing building from getting underway.

The protest began more than three weeks ago, when a small group of protesters started gathering daily at the entrance to the building site.

The protesters are demanding a plebiscite on the planned Sinti Gypsy settlement which will include houses and a caravan park. They have also staged protests at local Gypsy camps.

The local council intends to accommodate some 40 Sinti Gypsy families at the site, which will cost 2.8 million euros to build.

The Northern League claims the money should be spent on shelter for homeless Italian citizens from the Mestre-Veneto area who have asked the local council for help. The Sinti Gypsies should not get preferential treatment and must wait their turn to be housed, the Northern League argues.

Bowing to pressure, the mayor of Venice, Massimo Cacciari had halted building work at the planned Sinti Gypsy settlement, but has promised this will soon re-start.

In a declaration on his Web site, Stuart Hill, who owns the 2.5 acre island of Forvik in the Shetland Islands in the North Sea, said he no longer recognised the authority of the government or the European Union, and cited a centuries-old royal marriage dowry deal as the basis for his claim.

"Forvik owes no allegiance to any United Kingdom government, central or local, and is not bound by any of its statutes," Hill wrote.

Bosnian Serb security chief Stojan Zupljanin, 56, was one of four suspects sought by the tribunal for war crimes in the territory of former Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

Their arrest and handover to the tribunal has been a condition of Serbia's progress towards EU membership.

"There was no resistance during his arrest," said Vladimir Vukcevic, Serbia's chief war crimes prosecutor, who coordinated the operation. "This arrest shows clearly that we are seriously cooperating (with the Hague)."

Zupljanin was found at an apartment about 8 km (5 miles) from the centre of Belgrade by police and security agents and will be extradited within in 72 hours, officials said.

The arrest comes as Serbia, deeply split between nationalists and a pro-EU bloc after inconclusive elections last month, is immersed in intense coalition negotiations.

Officials said Zupljanin had foiled a previous attempt to arrest him in the southern Serbian city of Nis two months ago. His family had publicly called on him to surrender, to spare them further notoriety and financial collapse.

[snip]

The EU welcomed the arrest.

"It is an important step towards full cooperation with (the tribunal), which is key to bringing justice and lasting reconciliation in the Western Balkans region," EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said in a statement.

In Washington, the State Department also praised Serbia.

"His arrest is another positive step towards insuring those responsible for war crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia are held accountable," said State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos.

The U.S. hoped the arrest of Mladic, Karadzic and Hadzic, would follow, and "we call on authorities in the region to bring them to justice," he said.

Analysts said Wednesday's arrest may indicate that a pro-European coalition was the most likely outcome of Serbia's month-long government negotiations.

"It might also be seen as an announcement that it's more realistic to have a government that will follow a pro-European path," said political analyst Zoran Stojiljkovic.

The Democratic party leading the pro-Western bloc said the arrest signalled Serbia may gain EU candidate status by the end of the year. The Radical party, spearheading the nationalist grouping, slammed it as a black page in Serbia's history.

The first national demonstration of Gypsies brought hundreds of people to the capital Sunday to protest recent episodes of racism in Italy that have targeted Roma and Sinti people, as they prefer to be called.

"We're being used as scapegoats" to gain political advantage, said Stoyanovic Vojislav, a Serbian Roma and one of the organizers of the colorful demonstration, which involved about a dozen organizations.

Roma communities and illegal immigrants are increasingly blamed for rising crime in Italy, although statistics do not reflect a marked change over previous years.

The demonstration, Vojislav said, will make Italians understand "that the Roma are very different from how we are depicted" in the media and by some center-right politicians. More than half of the estimated 160,000 Roma in this country are Italian citizens, while most of the remainder are from Romania - since 2007 part of the European Union - or from the former Yugoslavia. But they are usually treated as foreigners.

"This is the first time in six centuries that we are demanding our rights," said Santino Spinelli, another organizer, who is a popular Gypsy musician and a professor of Roma culture at the University of Trieste. "We are demanding to be integrated because we are citizens like any others."

[snip]

Silvio Berlusconi's center-right government has promised tough legislation that would allow the police to shut down unauthorized Roma camps. The government also wants to carry out a census of people living in the camps. Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said last week that the issue of the Roma camps would be resolved by the end of the year.

Many of the demonstrators on Sunday wore black triangles, like those that the Nazis forced the Roma to wear in concentration camps.

"Today is a great day for the Rom," said Gina, a Roma from Romania who did not want to give her last name. "Remember that if you forget history, it can repeat itself."