Published on 20 September 2021
THIRD SECTION
Application no. 21290/18
Sakhib Yakub ogly ALIYEV and Others
against Russia
lodged on 30 April 2018
communicated on 3 September 2021
SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE
The application concerns the criminal prosecution of members of the Church of Scientology in St Petersburg who have been subjected to pre‑trial detention and house arrest on the grounds of their membership of the Scientology community.
QUESTIONS TO THE PARTIES
1. Was there a violation of Article 9 of the Convention, read in the light of Articles 10 and 11, on account of the applicants’ criminal prosecution?
2. Was the applicants’ detention and house arrest based on “relevant and sufficient” reasons and reasonable suspicion of having committed an offence as required by Article 5 § 3, taken alone or in conjunction with Article 14 of the Convention? Were they detained on the ground that they belonged to the Scientology community?
3. Did the length of the proceedings by which the applicants sought to challenge their pre-trial detention and house arrest, comply with the “speediness” requirement of Article 5 § 4 of the Convention? In particular, were the following detention and house arrest orders reviewed “speedily”: 19 October and 18 December 2017 (Mr Aliyev), 20 October and 4 December 2017 (Ms Esaulkova), 17 October and 4 December 2017 (Mr Matsitskiy), 19 October and 18 December 2017 (Ms Terenteyva); 30 September, 20 October and 4 December 2017 (Ms Shurinova)?
APPENDIX
List of applicants
No.
Applicant’s Name
Year of birth
Nationality
Place of residence
1.
Sakhib Yakub ogly ALIYEV
1984
Russian
St Petersburg
2.
Ivan Vladimirovich MATSITSKIY
1975
Russian
St Petersburg
3.
Galina Petrovna SHURINOVA
1954
Russian
St Petersburg
4.
Anastasia Gennadyevna TERENTYEVA
1979
Russian
St Petersburg
5.
Konstantsiya Valeryevna YESAULKOVA
1970
Russian
Staraya village, Leningrad Region
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