PETROPAVLOVSKIS v. LATVIA JUDGMENT 1 In the case of Petropavlovskis v. Latvia, The European Court of Human Rights (Fourth Section), sitting as a Chamber composed of: Päivi Hirvelä, President, Ineta Ziemele, George Nicolaou, Ledi Bianku, Zdravka Kalaydjieva, Krzysztof Wojtyczek, Faris Vehabović, judges, and Françoise Elens-Passos, Section Registrar, Having deliberated in private on 18 November and 9 December 2014, Delivers the following judgment, which was adopted on the lastmentioned date: PROCEDURE 1. The case originated in an application (no. 44230/06) against the Republic of Latvia lodged with the Court under Article 34 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (“the Convention”) by a “permanently resident non-citizen” of the Republic of Latvia, Mr Jurijs Petropavlovskis (“the applicant”), on 10 October 2006. 2. The applicant was represented by Mr A. Dimitrovs, a lawyer practising in Brussels. The Latvian Government (“the Government”) were represented by their Agents, Mrs I. Reine and, subsequently, Mrs K. Līce. 3. The applicant complained under Articles 10, 11 and 13 of the Convention that the allegedly arbitrary refusal of Latvian citizenship through naturalisation was a punitive measure imposed on him because he had imparted ideas and exercised his right of assembly in order to criticise the government’s position. 4. In a decision of 3 June 2008, the Court declared the application admissible and joined to the merits the Government’s objection to the Court’s jurisdiction ratione materiae. 5. The applicant and the Government each filed further observations (Rule 59 § 1 of the Rules of Court) on the merits.