The ECHR ordered Russia to pay more than 12 thousand euros to activists persecuted for leaflets

The European Court of Human Rights found it unlawful to arrest and bring to administrative responsibility four applicants for distributing leaflets in connection with elections in Russia in different years. This was reported on the website of the court.

The decision of the ECHR was adopted on the basis of the lawsuit “Teslenko and others v. Russia”. The applicants were awarded a total of EUR 12,614 in respect of non-pecuniary and pecuniary damage. Protocols were drawn up against the activists under the article on interference in the activities of the election commission (Article 5.69 of the Code of Administrative Offenses).

The ECHR recognized that the Russian authorities violated the right to liberty and security of person, as well as the right to freedom of speech (Article 5, Article 10 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms).

“We managed to convey to the European Court the arguments that the detention and punishment for calls not to participate in elections is a disproportionate restriction of freedom of expression. This decision of the ECHR was the first in a whole group of similar violations related to the previous presidential elections in Russia. After the exclusion of Russia from the Council of Europe, it is completely unclear how this decision will be implemented by the authorities, but we will insist on implementation and continue to seek justice,” said OVD-Info lawyer Denis Shedov.

The interests of the applicant, Bulat Nigmatullin, were represented by Tatyana Glushkova, a lawyer from the Memorial Human Rights Center, and Denis Shedov, a lawyer from OVD-Info.

Nigmatullin distributed leaflets calling for participation in the “voter strike” announced by Alexei Navalny in 2018, on the eve of the presidential election. In March 2018, he was fined 1,000 rubles under Article 5.12 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (production, distribution or placement of campaign materials in violation of the requirements of the legislation on elections and referendums). Nikolai Dyachkov conducted a similar campaign in Ivanovo, in May 2018 he was fined 4,500 rubles under Article 5.69 of the Code of Administrative Offenses (interference in the exercise by an election commission, a referendum commission of the powers established by the legislation on elections and referendums, or interference with the participation of voters, referendum participants, participants of the all-Russian voting in the voting).

In March 2012, Valery Lyutarevich was fined 1,000 rubles in the Ivanovo region under Article 5.12 of the Code of Administrative Offenses for placing a sheet with the text “United Russia is a party of crooks and thieves” on the rear window of his car. Andrey Teslenko in the Altai Territory was fined the same amount in December 2011 under the same article for distributing leaflets with the same text, as well as a call to come to the polls so as not to vote for the party in power.

The heading has been changed due to clarification of information about the content of leaflets