The ECHR communicated complaints from 23 Russians detained at protests

The European Court of Human Rights communicated 19 complaints from 23 Russian citizens who were detained over the years for participating in peaceful protests. The complaints of 23 Russians were combined into the case “Kapustin and others against Russia,” OVD-Info reports , citing lawyers of the international human rights group “Agora” Alexander Popkov and Marina Dubrovina.

Popkova and Dubrovina represent the interests of civil activists David Hakim and Alexey Mandrigel, who ask that the Russian government be found guilty of violating the right to liberty and security of person and to freedom of assembly and association (Articles 5 and 11 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms), violation freedom of expression and the right to a fair trial (Articles 10 and 6 of the European Convention).

Activist of the “Environmental Watch for the North Caucasus” Alexei Mandrigel was detained in 2012 when he walked through the Central Square of Krasnodar with a lit candle and a funeral wreath, protesting against violations during the elections. Progress Party member David Hakim was fined 20 thousand rubles in February 2014 for a single picket during the Olympics in Sochi. At the same time, he, along with activist Olga Noskovets, was preventively detained before a picket 30 kilometers from the Olympic Park, accused of disobeying a lawful order of a police officer and arrested for four days.

“Now in the Krasnodar Territory, as soon as the right to freedom of assembly arises, arrest immediately follows. This happens at all recent rallies associated with any protest. It all started with the case of Alexei Mandrigel, when he was arrested for 15 days for a peaceful protest,” says their lawyer Dubrovina.

As OVD-Info notes, in the case “Kapustin and others v. Russia” there are also complaints from activists detained on May 11, 2015 at protests in support of Nadezhda Savchenko, Leonid Dubrovo, detained on June 6, 2015 on Manezhnaya Square with a poster “Putin - today’s Hitler,” Alexander Ryklin and Sergei Sharov-Delaunay, detained on Bolotnaya Square on May 6, 2015, Daria Kostromina - she was detained on November 6, 2014 on Manezhnaya Square with a poster “Putin is a shame of Russia.”

The European Court of Human Rights intends to examine to what extent the applicants' arrests were justified, whether the law enforcement authorities had legal grounds for stopping the applicants' protests, and whether the state intervention and the consequences for the applicants were excessive.