The ECHR communicated complaints from 23 Russians detained at protests

The European Court of Human Rights communicated 19 complaints from 23 residents of Russia who in different years participated in peaceful protests and were punished by the authorities for this. The complaints were consolidated into the case “Vladimir Kapustin and others v. Russia” , said Alexander Popkov and Marina Dubrovina, lawyers for the Agora International Human Rights Group, representing the interests of civil activists David Khakim and Aleksey Mandrigel, on July 17, whose complaints were also communicated.

The European Court asked the government of the Russian Federation a number of questions.

“The ECtHR is interested in what legal grounds the law enforcement agencies had for stopping the protest actions of the applicants, whether the intervention of the state and the consequences for the applicants were not excessive. Was the lack of prior notice a “break of the law” on the part of the “participants” or a “deliberate violation of the rules regarding the holding of a public event” on the part of the organizer of the event? The ECtHR asks the Russian government how justified the arrest of the applicants was, explains lawyer Popkov.

“Now in the Krasnodar Territory, as soon as the right to freedom of assembly arises, arrest immediately follows. This happens at all recent actions associated with any protest. And it all started with the case of Aleksey Mandrigel, when he was arrested for 15 days for a peaceful rally, ”says Dubrovin’s lawyer.

Aleksey Mandrigelya, who at that time was a candidate for deputy from the Yabloko party and a member of the Environmental Watch for the North Caucasus, asks that the Russian government be found guilty of violating the right to freedom and personal integrity and freedom of assembly and association (Articles 5 and 11 of the European Convention on protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms). In the autumn of 2012, he walked along the Central Square of Krasnodar with a lit candle and a funeral wreath, expressing concern about the fairness of the elections.

At the time of the filing of the complaint, the local leader of the Progress Party, David Hakim, in addition to the articles listed above, applied to Strasbourg in two cases at once, also on violations of freedom of expression and the right to a fair trial (Articles 10 and 6 of the European Convention). For a single picket held during the Olympics in Sochi on February 17, 2014, Hakim was first sentenced to 30 hours of community service, and after the cancellation of this decision, he was fined 20 thousand rubles. On February 23, 2014, Hakim was detained together with another activist Olga Noskovets preventively before the picket 30 kilometers from the Olympic Park, suspected of disobeying a lawful order of a police officer and arrested for 4 days.

The case also includes complaints from detainees on May 11, 2015 about actions in support of Nadezhda Savchenko in Yekaterinburg, Leonid Dubrovo, who was detained on June 6, 2015 at Manezhnaya Square with a poster "Putin is today's Hitler", Alexander Ryklin and Sergey Sharov-Delaunay, who were detained at Bolotnaya Square on May 6, 2015, Darya Kostromina - she was detained on November 6, 2014 on Manezhnaya Square with a poster "Putin is a shame to Russia."