Translated material
Lessons from Strasbourg
Russian authorities are learning from the European Court to protect the rights of citizens
Seven prisoners from a maximum security colony in the Perm region will receive 10 thousand euros from the Russian treasury for the abuse they suffered from the guards. This decision was made yesterday by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), recognizing that the right to an effective remedy before government agencies, as well as the prohibition on the use of torture and inhuman, degrading treatment, had been violated.The conditions of detention of prisoners and convicts, despite the measures taken by the penitentiary service to bring them into line with international standards, still remain the cause of sharp criticism of the Council of Europe. Yesterday, this problem, among others, was actively discussed at the Russian Academy of Justice (RAJ), where eminent lawyers - judges and international lawyers - gathered to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Russia's ratification of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. The academy itself celebrated its 10th anniversary yesterday.
Russian prisoners, as Russian ECHR judge Anatoly Kovler said yesterday, are considered one of the most vulnerable social groups. "Of course they are convicted of crimes, but that doesn't mean they should be treated like cattle," Mr. Kovler said. -- The European Court considers the lack of opportunity for prisoners to defend their rights to be a systemic problem. Who should they complain to? In the case of the mass beating of convicts in the Perm region, although the prosecutor’s office admitted the fact of abuse, they dropped the criminal case, since the special forces who committed them were wearing masks, and therefore it was impossible to establish their identities. In addition, the European Court was refused to provide medical examinations of the victims, since this allegedly constitutes medical confidentiality.”
The emergency in the maximum security colony in the village of Chepets, Cherdynsky district, Perm region, occurred seven years ago, in April 2001, but after the ruling of the ECHR issued yesterday, it again became the subject of active discussion. As Zakhar Zhulanov, a lawyer for the Perm Regional Human Rights Center, told Vremya Novostey, in April 2001, a special forces detachment “Varyag” from the forest corrections department of seven people arrived at the colony “to provide practical assistance in maintaining the established regime”: “This was a planned event , there were no emergencies in the colony at that time. But the special forces, without any reason, began to beat the prisoners for the slightest reason - someone said something wrong, objected or walked too slowly, someone was found with some kind of prohibited item. They beat me just like that, to intimidate me, so that they knew their place and didn’t compromise their rights.” But the prisoners did not forget about their rights, and as soon as the Varyag fighters left the colony, they wrote about 140 complaints to the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Perm Region and to the regional prosecutor’s office. In June, the prosecutor's office opened a criminal case into abuse of official powers by Varyag employees, but dropped it in the fall of the same year. “It is paradoxical that the prosecutor’s office recognized the actions of the special forces as illegal, but dropped the case because the victims could not identify them, since they were all wearing camouflage and masks. That is, the facts of crimes have been established, but no one can be held accountable,” the human rights activist was indignant.
As a result, only the detachment commander, Stanislav Bromberg, was charged with negligence, since he could not properly control the actions of his subordinates. But in February 2002, the Cherdynsky District Court acquitted him, and with very interesting wording. “The court recognized the use of special means as legal and justified, since the special forces used them in cases of violation of the regime by prisoners, after warnings, for refusal to obey,” Mr. Zhulanov read out an excerpt from the verdict. -- The court found that “the harm to health was caused legally.” In addition, the court referred to the fact that the criminal case against the Varyag fighters was closed, which prevents further establishment of facts of illegal actions of special forces officers. But the prosecutor’s office did not deny that lawlessness took place, it just did not establish the identities of the perpetrators!”
Seven prisoners of the colony - Mikhail Dedovsky, Alexander Matrosov, Stanislav Bukhman, Viktor Vidin, Igor Kolpakov, Dmitry Gorokhov and Alexey Pazleev - decided to seek justice in Strasbourg. And they found it. The ECHR did not need to tear off the masks of the military and search for their passport data in order to force the Russian authorities to pay compensation to the victims for the suffering caused to them. The court valued them at 10 thousand euros for each.
Human rights activist Zakhar Zhulanov, in a conversation with a Vremya Novostey correspondent, emphasized that a lot of water has passed under the bridge since those events and a lot has changed for the better: “We have not recently observed such emergencies as the mass beating of prisoners, and this indicates significant positive changes that occurred in the penitentiary system."
The former Commissioner of the Russian Federation to the ECHR, and now the head of the Department of European Humanitarian Law of the RAP, Pavel Laptev, spoke about the same thing yesterday. He noted that the Federal Penitentiary Service not only accepts all recommendations of the ECHR regarding correctional institutions, but also constantly works to improve the living conditions of its charges. “Do you know where the most exemplary prison in Europe is located? - Mr. Laptev addressed the audience and immediately stunned everyone: “In Omsk!” True, the representative of the Council of Europe, Christos Giakoumopoulos, who monitors the Russian Federation’s implementation of ECHR rulings, expressed a modest wish that all our other prison institutions follow the example of Omsk.
ECHR Judge Anatoly Kovler stated that Russia, together with Poland and Turkey, is “one of the three champions” in terms of the number of rulings made on violation of citizens’ rights to freedom and personal integrity (Article 5 of the Convention). We are talking about arrests, or rather, about the too frequent and unmotivated use of this exceptional preventive measure. “Arrest is used in almost 100% of cases, although the Code of Criminal Procedure also provides for other options - personal guarantee, bail, house arrest,” Mr. Kovler said. - The European Court does not deny and even justifies the arrest, but only when it is really necessary. Only a third of those arrested ultimately receive imprisonment as punishment. So, the remaining two-thirds were imprisoned for prevention? It is not uncommon for a court to sentence the accused to exactly the same period of time that he has already served in custody, in fact only to justify his detention.”
Mr. Kovler emphasized that in Russia it is necessary to improve the mechanism for observing basic human rights at the national level. Veronika Milinchuk, Commissioner of the Russian Federation at the ECHR, noted that it is already possible to apply to the courts for compensation for violated rights established by the convention, and that there are precedents when courts made decisions in favor of victims. “This is a very positive practice. Citizens should file more complaints in national courts,” she said.
In order for Russians to be able to restore their rights within the framework of national legal proceedings, the Supreme Court (SC) has already prepared a draft federal constitutional law on compensation for damage caused due to too long consideration of cases and non-execution of court decisions. Under these two articles, the ECHR regularly hits the Russian budget, and citizen complaints about red tape and non-execution of court decisions make up about half of the total. However, the Supreme Court did not stop there. “In this bill we have included the opportunity to receive compensation for all violations under all articles of the European Convention,” said its head Vyacheslav Lebedev. - It is important that a citizen can resolve all issues here, within the country, and then, if the need remains, go to Strasbourg. After all, the European Court is also not very fast - it takes years to make a decision on a complaint.”