The ECHR awarded 75 thousand euros to Lev Ponomarev and six others detained at protests

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has published a decision on nine complaints from Russians about detentions at protests. The Strasbourg court recognized that in all cases the Russian authorities violated the citizens' right to freedom of assembly, and awarded them 75 thousand euros in compensation.

Complaints were filed about arrests at protest rallies in Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Kaliningrad and Svetlogorsk in 2006, 2007 and 2010. Among the applicants are human rights activist Lev Ponomarev, as well as activists Mikhail Kriger and Mikhail Shneider.

The court found that in all nine cases the Russian authorities violated Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights (the right to freedom of assembly and association), in four cases the right to an effective remedy (Article 13), and in one case also the right to freedom and personal integrity (Part 1 of Article 5).

Ponomarev, Krieger and Schneider filed two complaints with the ECHR, in both cases each applicant was awarded 7.5 thousand euros in compensation. The first complaint relates to arrests at a picket near the FSB building on Lubyanka in 2006, the second to arrests at a picket dedicated to the memory of the victims of Beslan.