The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has issued new rulings on complaints relating to issues of freedom of assembly in Russia: “Kargashin and others v. Russia” and “Savchenko and others v. Russia” .
Among the applicants are 16 clients of the Human Rights Center “Memorial” and OVD-Info, who complained about detentions during various protests: an anti-corruption rally on March 26, 2017 in Moscow, “Freedom for Navalny” protests on January 23 and 31 , 2021, and protests dedicated to the trial. over politician Alexei Navalny on February 2, 2021 , anti-war protests on March 6, 2022 , which took place throughout Russia.
Russian courts brought the applicants to justice under the “rally” article (Part 5 of Article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses) and under the article on participation in an action that interfered with traffic (Part 6.1 of Article 20.2 of the Code of Administrative Offenses). They were given fines ranging from 10 to 30 thousand rubles, as well as administrative arrests for a period of 7 to 15 days.
The ECHR found in the cases of the clients of the Human Rights Center "Memorial" and OVD-Info violations of a number of articles of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms: Article 11 (the right to freedom of assembly), Article 5 (the right to liberty and security of person), Article 6 (the right to a fair trial), Article 2 of Protocol No. 7 (right to review of a judicial decision).
The applicants were awarded compensation in the amount of 4,000 to 5,000 euros.
- 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.