Přehled
Rozhodnutí
THIRD SECTION
DECISION
Application no. 52277/11
Roman Vasilyevich DEMIN against Russia
and 18 other applications
(see list appended)
The European Court of Human Rights (Third Section), sitting on 13 October 2020 as a Committee composed of:
Darian Pavli, President,
Dmitry Dedov,
Peeter Roosma, judges,
and Olga Chernishova, Deputy Section Registrar,
Having regard to the above applications lodged on the various dates indicated in the appended table,
Having regard to the observations submitted by the respondent Government and the observations in reply submitted by the applicants,
Having regard to the comments submitted by Citizens’ Watch, which had been given leave to intervene in the written procedure (Article 36 § 2 of the Convention and Rule 44 § 3 of the Rules of Court),
Having deliberated, decides as follows:
THE FACTS
1. The applicants are Russian nationals living in various regions of the Russian Federation. Their personal details appear in the appended table.
2. The Russian Government ("the Government") were represented initially by Mr G. Matyushkin, the Representative of the Russian Federation to the European Court of Human Rights, and then by his successor in that office, Mr M. Galperin.
3. On various dates between 2011 and 2015 the applicants were criminally prosecuted and convicted of various offences under the Russian legislation in force. The particulars of the relevant domestic proceedings are presented in the appended table.
COMPLAINTS
4. The applicants complained under Article 6 §§ 1 and 3 (d) of the Convention that they were not provided an opportunity to examine the prosecution witnesses during trial.
THE LAW
5. The Court considers that in accordance with Rule 42 § 1 of the Rules of Court, the applications listed in the appended table should be joined.
6. The respondent Government in their observations argued that applicants had had fair hearings in the determination of the criminal charges against them in accordance with Article 6 § 1 of the Convention.
7. Certain applicants disagreed, while the others did not provide specific arguments.
8. The Court has carefully examined the applications listed in the appended table and concluded that, in the light of the Court’s primary concern under Article 6 § 1 to evaluate the overall fairness of the criminal proceedings (see Al-Khawaja and Tahery v. the United Kingdom [GC], nos. 26766/05 and 22228/06, § 118, ECHR 2011, and Schatschaschwili v. Germany [GC], no. 9154/10, § 101, ECHR 2015), the presumption that in principle the Russian legal system offers robust procedural guarantees securing the right of an accused to examine witnesses testifying against him, ensuring that the reading out of absent witnesses’ testimony is possible only as an exception (see Zadumov v. Russia, no. 2257/12, § 63, 12 December 2017, recently reiterated in Kiba and Others v. Russia (dec.) [Committee], nos. 38047/08 and 2 others, § 16, 17 April 2018), the material in its possession, and in so far as the matters complained of are within its competence, the applications are manifestly ill-founded, and thus must be rejected in accordance with Article 35 §§ 3 (a) and 4 of the Convention.
For these reasons, the Court, unanimously,
Decides to join the applications;
Declares the applications inadmissible.
Done in English and notified in writing on 5 November 2020.
Olga Chernishova Darian Pavli
Deputy Registrar President
APPENDIX
No. | Application no. Date of introduction | Applicant name Date of birth Place of residence Nationality Represented by | Date of the trial and appeal courts’ judgments Convicted of | Absent prosecution witness |
1 | 52277/11 19/07/2011 | Roman Vasilyevich DEMIN 1983 Kamenskiy Russian Yekaterina Sergeyevna KRUTIKOVA | Neftegorskiy District Court of the Samara Region 11/01/2011 Samara Regional Court 04/03/2011 Convicted of infliction of grievous bodily injuries that led to the victim’s death and robbery | Mr D., Mr S. |
2 | 6752/12 26/03/2012 | Dinmukhamed Mustapayevich YSAKOV 1982 Sosnovyy bor Kyrgyz | St Petersburg City Court 07/07/2011 Supreme Court of Russia 20/10/2011 Convicted of murder | Mr L. |
3 | 66754/12 28/09/2012 | Aleksandr Aleksandrovich NIKONOV 1979 Bor Russian | Timiryazevskiy District Court of Moscow 14/03/2012 Moscow City Court 14/06/2012 Convicted of infliction of grievous bodily injuries that lead to the death of the victim | Mr T. |
4 | 68848/12 12/09/2012 | Ruslan Rusamovich GALIYEV 1979 Cheboksary Russian | Kalininskiy District Court of Cheboksary of the Chuvash Republic 27/02/2012 Supreme Court of the Chuvash Republic 07/06/2012 Convicted of inducing to and organisation of prostitution in conspiracy | Mrs S., Mrs G. |
5 | 892/13 12/12/2012 | Vitaliy Vladimirovich DASHKOV 1976 Lipetsk Russian Aleksey Vyacheslavovich SUSHKOV | Lipetsk Regional Court 28/12/2011 Supreme Court of Russia 27/06/2012 Convicted of attempted murder in conspiracy | Mr T. |
6 | 13105/13 18/02/2013 | Zakhar Sergeyevich BERESTOVOY 1986 Kochubeyevskoye Russian Lina Fedorovna MOTCHENKO | Khamovnicheskiy District Court of Moscow 13/02/2012 Moscow City Court 20/08/2012 Convicted of attempted drug dealing | Mrs P., Mr M., Mr N., Mr S., Mrs Av. |
7 | 14360/13 09/01/2013 | Dmitriy Vladislavovich GLAZYRIN 1970 Kazan Russian Natalya Yuryevna ZAYNULLINA | Supreme Court of the Republic of Tatarstan 17/02/2011 Supreme Court of Russia 18/07/2012 Convicted of organisation of prostitution in conspiracy, abduction, extortion in conspiracy | Mrs M. |
8 | 18635/13 25/12/2012 | Boymukhamad Saidovich KODIROV 1967 Mariinskiy Posad Russian | Mariinsko-Posadskiy District Court of the Chuvash Republic 23/03/2012 Supreme Court of the Chuvash Republic 28/06/2012 Convicted of preparation for drug dealing | Mr B. |
9 | 75293/14 24/11/2014 | Artur Anatolyevich SHCHEDRIN 1973 Vladivostok Nataliya Fedorovna SHCHEDRINA Russian | Primorskiy Regional Court 29/10/2013 Supreme Court of Russia 12/08/2014 Convicted of several counts of fraud in conspiracy and participation in a criminal organisation | Mr R., Mr U., Mr P. |
10 | 1432/15 16/12/2014 | Nina Akhatovna BOGDANOVA 1963 Kostroma Russian Denis Aleksandrovich ZABOLOTNYY | Nagatinskiy District Court of Moscow 10/12/2013 Moscow City Court 18/06/2014 Convicted of several counts of fraud in conspiracy | Mr Y., Mrs Y., Mrs P. |
11 | 3305/15 08/12/2014 | Igor Fridrikhovich PUZANOV 1975 Kirov Russian | Tsentralnyy District Court of Sochi of the Krasnodar Region 17/12/2013 Krasnodar Regional Court 11/06/2014 Convicted of attempted fraud and fraud | Ms Y. |
12 | 10871/15 16/02/2015 | Yelizaveta Sergeyevna TISLER 1988 Kingisepp Russian | Yoshkar-Olinskiy Town Court of the Republic of Mari El 26/06/2014 Supreme Court of the Republic of Mari El 18/08/2014 Convicted of fraud in conspiracy | Mr T., Mr M., Mr J., Mr K., Mr. Mat., Mr A., Mr D., Mr P., Mr F. |
13 | 12281/15 27/02/2015 | Andrey Germanovich SHISHKANOV 1991 Moscow Russian | Presnenskiy District Court of Moscow 27/06/2014 Moscow City Court 30/10/2014 Convicted of illegal deprivation of liberty, torture, threat of murder and theft in conspiracy | Mr T. |
14 | 17287/15 31/03/2015 | Zhanna Yanushevna LAKATOSH 1985 Ogarkovo Stateless | Nevskiy District Court of St Petersburg 04/04/2014 St Petersburg Regional Court 02/10/2014 Convicted of infliction of grievous bodily injuries leading to the death of the victim and attempted theft | Mr D., Ms T., Mr T. |
15 | 18347/15 03/04/2015 | Yelena Yuryevna NAZAROVA Olga Pavlovna TSEYTLINA 1980 Moscow Russian Ivan Mikhaylovich DYACHENKO | Gagarinskiy District Court of Moscow 02/06/2014 Moscow City Court 09/10/2014 Convicted of multiple counts of fraud in conspiracy | Mr I., Ms Y., Ms K., Mr K., Ms Kan., Mr M., Ms Zh., Ms M., Ms. L., Ms Kur., Mr Kl., Mr R., Ms B., Ms S., Ms Kon., Ms Ch. |
16 | 23551/15 27/04/2015 | Aleksandr Valentinovich POLYANSKIY 1973 Irkutsk Russian Viktoriya Viktorovna ARZHAYEVA | Muscovskiy Town Court of the Kemerovo Region 07/08/2014 Kemerovo Regional Court 28/10/2014 Convicted of murder | Mr Sh. |
17 | 56844/15 03/11/2015 | Aleksey Anatolyevich STEPANOV 1977 Tyumen Russian | Zheleznodorozhnuy Town Court of the Krasnoyarsk Region 01/08/2014 Krasnoyarsk Regional Court 18/06/2015 Convicted of several counts of attempted drug dealing in conspiracy and illegal storage of drugs | Mr S. |
18 | 61560/15 30/11/2015 | Anton Sergeyevich CHIKISHEV 1980 Sochi Russian | Justice of the Peace of the 90th Court Circuit of the Adlerskiy District of Sochi 26/03/2015 Adlerskiy District Court of Sochi of the Krasnodar Region 29/04/2015 Convicted of malicious evasion of payment of maintenance allowance for a child | Ms B. |
19 | 5010/16 16/12/2015 | Natalya Pavlovna VELICHKO 1956 Chelyabinsk Russian | Troitskiy District Court of the Chelyabinsk Region 13/0/2015 Chelyabinsk Regional Court 17/06/2015 Convicted of numerous counts of abuse of power | Ms D.O., Mr A., Ms B., Mr I.A., Ms A., Ms D.M., Ms Y.M., Mr I.D., Ms P., Mr Y.V. |