Human rights activists demanded that the ECHR allow them to represent a prisoner who died in a Chelyabinsk colony

The human rights association "Agora" filed a complaint with the European Court of Human Rights demanding that its employees be recognized as the legal representatives of prisoner Vladimir Kondrulin, who died in the colony, Kommersant writes , citing the head of the association, Pavel Chikov.

“It was the Agora lawyer who communicated with the applicant from the moment they met until the day of his death, and also ensured the execution of a power of attorney to represent his interests in the ECHR,” the complaint says. Human rights activists believe that they can win the prisoner’s case, since previously the ECHR, under similar circumstances, made a positive decision on the complaint of a Romanian prisoner. In both cases, prisoners have no legal representatives other than human rights activists: Kondrulin has only a sister, but she refused to represent his interests in the ECHR.

To date, no positive decisions have been made on such Russian complaints.

According to Chikov, Agora does not intend to claim compensation and intends to act in the public interest. Chikov noted that Agora and the human rights organization Zone of Law are investigating the cases of 30 seriously ill prisoners who have no relatives. “In Russia, about 5 thousand people die every year in colonies alone, and how many people die in the internal affairs department is generally unknown. Many of them have no relatives, which does not allow them to defend their interests even after death at the Strasbourg level,” Chikov said.

According to Kommersant, prisoner Kondrulin spent most of his life in prison and served his last sentence in the Chelyabinsk region. There he was diagnosed with prostate cancer. In the spring of 2015, Kondrulin applied for early release due to this disease, but the court denied it. With the help of Agora lawyer Andrei Lepekhin, the prisoner filed complaints with the ECHR demanding to intervene in the situation with his release due to illness. The ECHR communicated the complaint urgently and demanded that the Federal Penitentiary Service immediately conduct an independent medical examination, provide the necessary medications and assign Kondrulin for treatment. However, on September 7, the prisoner died in the colony.

Kondrulin’s lawyer filed a statement with the Investigative Committee about abuse of power (Article 286 of the Criminal Code) in relation to the colony employees.

Representatives of the Russian authorities after Kondrulin’s death announced the need to reject the prisoner’s complaint.