Translated material
The ECHR declared illegal the detention of a pensioner before the “March of Dissent” in Nizhny Novgorod
The European Court of Human Rights declared illegal the detention of pensioner Liliya Gremina in 2007 before the “March of Dissent” in Nizhny Novgorod. The organization “Committee against Torture”, whose lawyers represented Gremina’s interests in the ECHR, spoke about this. The ECHR decision is on the website.
writes published The court indicated that the police officers subjected Gremina to cruel treatment: she was roughly detained on the way to the rally, and was kept for more than five hours, first in a paddy wagon, and then in the basement of the police department. The ECHR awarded Gremina compensation in the amount of five thousand euros.
“I went to the “March of Dissent,” I didn’t know that it was prohibited. I didn’t get to him, they “took me away”. They used brute physical force, which was confirmed by a medical examination, because bruises remained on my body. They kept me on the bus and the police department for more than five hours. As a result, I was taken from the basement of the police department by ambulance with a hypertensive crisis,” the Committee Against Torture cites Gremina’s story about her detention on March 24, 2007.
The pensioner turned to the lawyers of the Committee Against Torture, who prepared complaints against the actions of the security forces: they asked to open a criminal case against Gremina using violence, and also sought to have her detention declared illegal.
Because ofIn the Russian court, lawyers were able to prove a violation of the Code of Administrative Offenses: the pensioner was held in the police department for more than three hours, violating her right to freedom of movement and causing moral suffering. The court then decided to pay Gremina 10 thousand rubles in compensation for moral damage.
A criminal case was never opened against the police officers: the investigative authorities issued eight decisions refusing to initiate a case.
The ECtHR found that the Russian authorities ill-treated a pensioner (violation of Article 3 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights), illegally deprived Gremina of freedom of movement and violated her right to personal integrity (violation of Article 5 of the Convention), and also deprived her of the right to an effective remedy protection at the national level (Article 13 of the Convention).
- The ECHR has already made several decisions recognizing the actions of the authorities in connection with the “Dissent Marches” as illegal. Thus, in 2019, a Russian court ordered 3,600 euros in compensation to the head of the Committee against Torture, Igor Kalyapin, for illegal detention at a protest. In 2016, the ECHR unlawfully detained seven applicants and ordered Russia to pay five thousand euros in compensation to each. obliged because admitted - “Marches of Dissent” - protests that took place from 2005 to 2008 in many cities of Russia. The protesters came out with various demands: for reforming the political structure of Russia, against Putin for the release of political prisoners and against the arbitrariness of the security forces. Some protests were violently dispersed by security forces.