The ECHR communicated the complaint of two convicted in the case of the German flag on the FSB building in Kaliningrad

The European Court of Human Rights accepted for consideration the complaint of activists Oleg Savvin and Mikhail Feldman, convicted of hoisting the German flag on the building of the Kaliningrad FSB department. Irina Khrunova, a lawyer for the international human rights group Agora, told Mediazona about this.

The Strasbourg court asked the Russian authorities several questions: whether the pre-trial detention and conviction of the activists constituted an interference with their right to freedom of expression and, if so, whether the interference was justified, whether it pursued a legitimate aim, or whether it corresponded to a “urgent social need.” The ECtHR is also interested in whether the detention of activists pending trial served a legitimate purpose.

Feldman and Savvin indicated that the authorities had violated Article 10 of the European Convention (right to freedom of expression) and Article 6 (unfair trial). In addition, both believe that the criminal case was “revenge of the Russian authorities” for their public activities and position, including on the “Ukrainian issue.”

Mikhail Feldman, Oleg Savvin and another activist Dmitry Fonarev were detained in March 2014 after they hoisted the German flag on the FSB building in Kaliningrad.

In the summer of 2016, the court sentenced them: Fonarev and Savvin received one year and one month in a general regime colony, Feldman received one year, one month and 23 days of imprisonment in a general regime colony. By that time, they had served these terms in a pre-trial detention center and were released in the courtroom. The court found all three guilty under Part 2 of Article 213 of the Criminal Code (hooliganism committed by a group of persons by prior conspiracy based on political hatred and enmity).