Views in Karttunen v. Finland,5 the author concludes that the chairperson displayed a bias, in violation of article 14, paragraph 1, of the Covenant. 3.2 By reference to the Committee’s decision in Nahlik v. Austria,4 the author contends that article 14, paragraph 1, of the Covenant also applies to the proceedings before the disciplinary committee. He submits that the disciplinary committee denied him a public hearing by meeting in camera. The exclusion of the public was not necessary to protect his patients’ right to privacy, since their names could have been replaced by acronyms. The author claims that his right to a fair hearing has been violated because the principle of ‘equality of arms’ was infringed in several ways. Firstly, the prosecuting party was given an opportunity to discuss the charges against him with the chairman of the disciplinary committee, while his defence was not provided such an opportunity. Moreover, the time he was given to prepare his defence was disproportionately short. Since the committee’s chairman refused to receive his lawyer’s written reply to the written accusations of the prosecuting party, the defence was required to present all arguments orally during the hearings. As a result, a medical expert who testified before the committee had no access to the written submissions of the defence, relying solely on the prosecuting party’s submissions. 3.5 The author also claims that he was discriminated against, contrary to articles 14, paragraph 1, and 26 of the Covenant, which require that objectively equal cases be treated equally. In support of this claim, he submits that his former supervisor, who faced similar charges, was treated differently during disciplinary proceedings and was ultimately acquitted. In the supervisor’s case, three members of the disciplinary committee were replaced by senior medical doctors at the supervisor’s request, while not a single member of the committee was replaced by a medical doctor in the author’s own case, even though his request to that effect was based on identical arguments and formulated by the same lawyer. Moreover, his former supervisor was acquitted of the charge of having issued private prescriptions using health insurance forms, on the ground that this practice had already been established by his predecessor. Furthermore, despite an agreement between one of the author’s predecessors and the Salzburg Regional Medial Health Insurance permitting such use of health insurance forms, the author was found guilty by the committee on the same charge. The committee argued that, since the predecessor had concluded the agreement in his personal capacity, the author could have invoked it only after a renewal ad personam. 3.3 Furthermore, the author claims that the disciplinary committee lacked the impartiality and independence required by article 14, paragraph 1, of the Covenant. Despite repeated complaints which were never decided upon by the disciplinary committee, the committee was composed of, in addition to the chairman, two members appointed by the employer and two members appointed by the employees’ representative committee (Betriebsrat) who were subordinate to the employer. Similarly, the author’s motion to replace at least one member by a medical expert was not decided upon. 3.6 With regard to the Austrian reservation to article 5, paragraph 2 (a), of the Optional Protocol, the author argues that the same matter “has not been examined by the European Commission of Human Rights”. Thus, his complaint was declared inadmissible not by the European Commission but by the European Court of Human Rights. Moreover, the Registry of the European Court failed to advise him of its concerns about the admissibility of his application, thereby depriving him of an opportunity to clarify doubts or to withdraw his application in order to submit it to the Human Rights Committee. The author also argues that the European Court did not even formally decide on his complaint that the extremely limited review by the Austrian courts of the disciplinary committee’s decision violated his right to an independent and impartial tribunal established by law (article 6, paragraph 1, of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms). 3.4 The author contends that the committee’s chairperson was biased since he privately discussed the case for several hours with the prosecuting party and because he rejected his written reply to the charges, pretending that it had been submitted after the expiry of the deadline and by pasting over the original note, in the file, with an instruction to transmit the submission to the prosecuting party. Moreover, the chairman reportedly also ignored various procedural objections of the defence, manipulated the records of the hearings and intimidated the author’s defence lawyer as well as, on one occasion, a medical expert testifying in the author’s favour. By reference to the Committee’s 3.7 The author contends that there are substantial differences between the Convention articles and the Covenant rights invoked by him. Thus, a free- 4 Communication No. 608/1995, Nahlik v. Austria, decision on admissibility adopted on 22 July 1996, at para. 8.2. 5 Communication No. 387/1989, Views adopted on 23 October 1992, at para. 7.2. 23