The ECHR examined nine complaints about freedom of assembly in Russia, filed jointly by lawyers from the Memorial Human Rights Center and OVD-Info. The decisions were published on the official website.
The clients of Human Rights Center “Memorial” and OVD-Info were detained at various protests: at an anti-corruption rally in Moscow on March 26, 2017 , protests in support of independent candidates for the Moscow City Duma on July 27, 2019 , anti-war protests on March 1 and April 2 , 2022. The court awarded them compensation from 3,900 to 5,000 euros.
Lawyers, first of all, drew the attention of the ECHR to a violation of Article 5 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, expressed in the illegal detention of clients for more than three hours for the sole purpose of drawing up a protocol on an administrative offense.
The decisions are contained in the decisions “ Savelyevs and others against Russia ”, “ Popov and others against Russia ”, “ Mazanov and others against Russia ”, “ Kotov and others against Russia ” and “ Andreev and others against Russia ”.
In total, to date, the court has examined more than 560 joint complaints from Memorial and OVD-Info and awarded compensation for more than two million euros.
15:20 Among the complaints satisfied by the ECHR is the complaint of human rights activist Svetlana Gannushkina and several other co-applicants who were denied approval for an action on Pushkinskaya Square in Moscow on December 5, 2018. about this writes Memorial . The event was supposed to coincide with the anniversary of the “glasnost rally” of 1965. The European Court found that the authorities violated the organizers' right to freedom of assembly and awarded them 500 euros in compensation for legal costs.
18:20 The ECHR awarded 5 thousand euros in compensation to a resident of Georgievsk, Stavropol Territory - in April 2022, he was given a fine of 40 thousand rubles because of anti-war leaflets (Part 1 of Article 20.3.3 of the Administrative Code) and two days of arrest under the article on disobedience to the police ( Part 1 of Article 19.3 of the Administrative Code). The European Court decided that Russia violated the activist’s right to a fair trial, freedom of expression and the right to appeal (the detainee served his arrest pending the decision of the appeal court). Pidenko himself told OVD-Info about this.
November 24 The ECHR also awarded 7,500 euros in compensation to activist from Vladivostok Georgy Kakabadze for illegal searches conducted at his home in 2021. This was reported by Sibir.Realii.
He noted that the security forces did not tell him what kind of case the searches were being carried out, and also did not allow a lawyer to see him. The man himself connected the investigative actions with rallies held by supporters of Alexei Navalny at the beginning of the year.
- 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.
- Since February 24, 2022—the first day of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine—residents of Russian cities have been holding anti-war protests every day and talking about the tragedy online. Anti-war speeches and statements become grounds for criminal prosecution. At the moment, more than 750 people have become defendants in criminal cases initiated due to protest against the war with Ukraine. Read more about this in our infographic .