The ECHR communicated Afanasyev’s complaint about the conditions

The European Court of Human Rights Comminized the complaint of the former Crimean prisoner of Gennady Afanasyev to the conditions when the Rostov-on-Don is transferred to the penal colony in Syktyvkar from the investigative isolator. This was reported by "Mediazona" with reference to representatives of political prisoners Alexander Popkov and Ernest Mesak.

"The questions raised in the complaint are already the subject of the established practice of the court. This complaint will be considered simultaneously for acceptance and essentially," the ECHR letter said.

The applicant believes that the Russian authorities violated Articles 3 and 13 of the European Human Rights Convention (the ban on inhuman appeal and the right to effective means of legal protection).

Afanasyev was abducted in Simferopol on May 9, 2014 and was tortured, as a result of which he testified. The political prisoner made a deal with the prosecutor’s office, and the materials in his regard were allocated into a separate production. On December 17, 2014, the Moscow City Court, having examined the Afanasyev case in a special order, sentenced him to seven years of maximum security .

Afanasyev was sent to Syktyvkar. In March, Judge Syktyvkar City Court, Alexander Smirnov, partially satisfied Afanasyev’s lawsuit against the FSIN about transferring from Komi to a colony, less distant from the annexed peninsula. Smirnov recognized Afanasyev "The right to serve criminal punishment ... taking into account the provisions of Article 8 of the European Convention" (the right to respect private and family life). As Mesak noted, in accordance with the precedent right of the ECHR from Article 8, the authorities should contribute to the personal dates of prisoners with close relatives.

In this regard, the judge ordered the Federal Penitentiary Service to “resolve the issue of the place of further serving by Afanasyev ... criminal punishment ... taking into account the motivated conclusion presented by the territorial body of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia, and the provisions of Article 8 of the European Convention”.

Meanwhile, Smirnov rejected all other claims. In particular, he did not recognize Afanasyev’s right to serve a term in one of the three regions closest to the Crimea - the Krasnodar Territory, the Rostov and Voronezh region. Accordingly, it was refused the demand to the FSIN and its regional header to immediately transfer the political prisoner into any of these constituent entities of the Federation.

On June 14, Afanasyev and another Ukrainian convicted in Russia Yuri Soloshenko were released and returned to their homeland . Ukrainians were exchanged at the organizers accused of separatism and participants of the so -called "People's Council of Bessarabia" Elena Gloshchinskaya and Vitaly Didenko.