The ECHR ordered Russia to pay 4.7 thousand euros to a journalist whose personal correspondence was copied by Sochi customs officers

The European Court of Human Rights awarded 4.7 thousand euros in compensation to journalist Yuri Ivashchenko, who complained about excessive searches at Sochi customs. Marina Dubrovina, a lawyer for the international human rights group Agora, told Mediazona about this.

In August 2009, Ivashchenko was returning to Russia from Abkhazia. During the inspection, customs officers copied his personal ICQ correspondence, text files and photographs from the journalist’s computer. All information occupied 26 gigabytes.

Due to the excessive search, Ivashchenko appealed to the Prikubansky District Court of Krasnodar, then to the Krasnodar Regional Court, but his complaint was not satisfied. After this, the journalist filed a complaint with the ECHR. The Strasbourg court confirmed that the Russian authorities violated Ivashchenko’s right to respect for private and family life (Article 8 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms).

“According to the ECtHR, Russian legislation does not provide courts with a legal framework for determining whether “intervention” is necessary in a democratic society. In this regard, the court considers that the circumstances of the case highlight certain shortcomings in the regulatory framework in Russia,” explained Dubrovina,

The disks on which customs officers copied the information were returned to Ivashchenko only in November 2011, when experts found no signs of extremism in the files studied.