On September 7, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) awarded four and a half thousand euros in compensation to Olga Komleva, a RusNews journalist from Ufa, who was fined twice in 2018 for participating in protests. to decision the court's RusNews drew attention .
On February 12, 2018, the Sovetsky District Court of Ufa fined Komleva ten thousand rubles under the article on violation by the organizer of the action of the procedure for holding it (Part 1 of Article 20.2 of the Administrative Code) due to participation in the “Voter Strike” that took place on January 28. On October 16 of the same year, the Kirovsky District Court fined her 75 thousand rubles under the article on repeated violation of the rally legislation (Part 8 of Article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offences) due to her participation in the action against pension reform. Both fines were later approved by the Supreme Court of Bashkortostan, after which Komleva appealed to the ECHR.
In the case of Nikolenko and others v. Russia, the court recognized that by imposing fines on Komleva, Russia violated her right to a fair trial (Part 1 of Article 6 of the European Convention), and therefore awarded the journalist compensation.
“The likelihood of receiving a payment from the state - the Russian Federation is currently small, but the very fact that the actions of the Russian authorities are recognized as illegal is very pleasing,” RusNews quotes the journalist’s comment regarding the decision of the European Court.
- On June 11, 2022, Vladimir Putin signed a law allowing the Russian government not to implement ECHR decisions taken after March 15, 2022, the day Russia was expelled from the Council of Europe. At the same time, the Court continued to consider complaints about violations by the Russian authorities that occurred before September 14, 2022. Lawyers are still turning to the ECHR with them in order to maintain contact with the Council of Europe, to which Russia may someday want to return. It also makes it possible to record violations and inform European countries about the scale of human rights violations in Russia.