THIRD SECTION
DECISION
Application no. 52277/11
Roman Vasilyevich DEMIN against Russia
and 18 other applications
(see list appended)
The European Court of Human Rights (Third Section), sitting on 13 October 2020 as a Committee composed of:
Darian Pavli, President,
Dmitry Dedov,
Peeter Roosma, judges,
and Olga Chernishova, Deputy Section Registrar,
Having regard to the above applications lodged on the various dates indicated in the appended table,
Having regard to the observations submitted by the respondent Government and the observations in reply submitted by the applicants,
Having regard to the comments submitted by Citizens’ Watch, which had been given leave to intervene in the written procedure (Article 36 § 2 of the Convention and Rule 44 § 3 of the Rules of Court),
Having deliberated, decides as follows:
THE FACTS
1. The applicants are Russian nationals living in various regions of the Russian Federation. Their personal details appear in the appended table.
2. The Russian Government ("the Government") were represented initially by Mr G. Matyushkin, the Representative of the Russian Federation to the European Court of Human Rights, and then by his successor in that office, Mr M. Galperin.
3. On various dates between 2011 and 2015 the applicants were criminally prosecuted and convicted of various offences under the Russian legislation in force. The particulars of the relevant domestic proceedings are presented in the appended table.
COMPLAINTS
4. The applicants complained under Article 6 §§ 1 and 3 (d) of the Convention that they were not provided an opportunity to examine the prosecution witnesses during trial.
THE LAW
5. The Court considers that in accordance with Rule 42 § 1 of the Rules of Court, the applications listed in the appended table should be joined.
6. The respondent Government in their observations argued that applicants had had fair hearings in the determination of the criminal charges against them in accordance with Article 6 § 1 of the Convention.
7. Certain applicants disagreed, while the others did not provide specific arguments.
8. The Court has carefully examined the applications listed in the appended table and concluded that, in the light of the Court’s primary concern under Article 6 § 1 to evaluate the overall fairness of the criminal proceedings (see Al-Khawaja and Tahery v. the United Kingdom [GC], nos. 26766/05 and 22228/06, § 118, ECHR 2011, and Schatschaschwili v. Germany [GC], no. 9154/10, § 101, ECHR 2015), the presumption that in principle the Russian legal system offers robust procedural guarantees securing the right of an accused to examine witnesses testifying against him, ensuring that the reading out of absent witnesses’ testimony is possible only as an exception (see Zadumov v. Russia, no. 2257/12, § 63, 12 December 2017, recently reiterated in Kiba and Others v. Russia (dec.) [Committee], nos. 38047/08 and 2 others, § 16, 17 April 2018), the material in its possession, and in so far as the matters complained of are within its competence, the applications are manifestly ill-founded, and thus must be rejected in accordance with Article 35 §§ 3 (a) and 4 of the Convention.
For these reasons, the Court, unanimously,
Decides to join the applications;
Declares the applications inadmissible.
Done in English and notified in writing on 5 November 2020.
Olga ChernishovaDarian Pavli
Deputy RegistrarPresident
APPENDIX
No.
Application no.
Date of introduction
Applicant name
Date of birth
Place of residence
Nationality
Represented by
Date of the trial and appeal courts’ judgments
Convicted of
Absent prosecution witness
1
52277/11
19/07/2011
Roman Vasilyevich DEMIN
1983
Kamenskiy
Russian
Yekaterina Sergeyevna KRUTIKOVA
Neftegorskiy District Court of the Samara Region
11/01/2011
Samara Regional Court
04/03/2011
Convicted of infliction of grievous bodily injuries that led to the victim’s death and robbery
Mr D., Mr S.
2
6752/12
26/03/2012
Dinmukhamed Mustapayevich YSAKOV
1982
Sosnovyy bor
Kyrgyz
St Petersburg City Court
07/07/2011
Supreme Court of Russia
20/10/2011
Convicted of murder
Mr L.
3
66754/12
28/09/2012
Aleksandr Aleksandrovich NIKONOV
1979
Bor
Russian
Timiryazevskiy District Court of Moscow
14/03/2012
Moscow City Court
14/06/2012
Convicted of infliction of grievous bodily injuries that lead to the death of the victim
Mr T.
4
68848/12
12/09/2012
Ruslan Rusamovich GALIYEV
1979
Cheboksary
Russian
Kalininskiy District Court
of Cheboksary of the Chuvash Republic
27/02/2012
Supreme Court
of the Chuvash Republic
07/06/2012
Convicted of inducing to and organisation of prostitution in conspiracy
Mrs S., Mrs G.
5
892/13
12/12/2012
Vitaliy Vladimirovich DASHKOV
1976
Lipetsk
Russian
Aleksey Vyacheslavovich SUSHKOV
Lipetsk Regional Court
28/12/2011
Supreme Court of Russia
27/06/2012
Convicted of attempted murder in conspiracy
Mr T.
6
13105/13
18/02/2013
Zakhar Sergeyevich BERESTOVOY
1986
Kochubeyevskoye
Russian
Lina Fedorovna MOTCHENKO
Khamovnicheskiy District Court of Moscow
13/02/2012
Moscow City Court
20/08/2012
Convicted of attempted drug dealing
Mrs P., Mr M., Mr N., Mr S., Mrs Av.
7
14360/13
09/01/2013
Dmitriy Vladislavovich GLAZYRIN
1970
Kazan
Russian
Natalya Yuryevna ZAYNULLINA
Supreme Court
of the Republic of Tatarstan
17/02/2011
Supreme Court of Russia
18/07/2012
Convicted of organisation of prostitution in conspiracy, abduction, extortion in conspiracy
Mrs M.
8
18635/13
25/12/2012
Boymukhamad Saidovich KODIROV
1967
Mariinskiy Posad
Russian
Mariinsko-Posadskiy District Court
of the Chuvash Republic
23/03/2012
Supreme Court
of the Chuvash Republic
28/06/2012
Convicted of preparation for drug dealing
Mr B.
9
75293/14
24/11/2014
Artur Anatolyevich SHCHEDRIN
1973
Vladivostok
Nataliya Fedorovna SHCHEDRINA
Russian
Primorskiy Regional Court
29/10/2013
Supreme Court of Russia
12/08/2014
Convicted of several counts of fraud in conspiracy and participation in a criminal organisation
Mr R., Mr U., Mr P.
10
1432/15
16/12/2014
Nina Akhatovna BOGDANOVA
1963
Kostroma
Russian
Denis Aleksandrovich ZABOLOTNYY
Nagatinskiy District Court of Moscow
10/12/2013
Moscow City Court
18/06/2014
Convicted of several counts of fraud in conspiracy
Mr Y., Mrs Y., Mrs P.
11
3305/15
08/12/2014
Igor Fridrikhovich PUZANOV
1975
Kirov
Russian
Tsentralnyy District Court
of Sochi of the Krasnodar Region
17/12/2013
Krasnodar Regional Court
11/06/2014
Convicted of attempted fraud and fraud
Ms Y.
12
10871/15
16/02/2015
Yelizaveta Sergeyevna TISLER
1988
Kingisepp
Russian
Yoshkar-Olinskiy Town Court of the Republic
of Mari El
26/06/2014
Supreme Court
of the Republic of Mari El
18/08/2014
Convicted of fraud in conspiracy
Mr T., Mr M., Mr J., Mr K., Mr. Mat., Mr A., Mr D., Mr P., Mr F.
13
12281/15
27/02/2015
Andrey Germanovich SHISHKANOV
1991
Moscow
Russian
Presnenskiy District Court of Moscow
27/06/2014
Moscow City Court
30/10/2014
Convicted of illegal deprivation of liberty, torture, threat of murder and theft in conspiracy
Mr T.
14
17287/15
31/03/2015
Zhanna Yanushevna LAKATOSH
1985
Ogarkovo
Stateless
Nevskiy District Court
of St Petersburg
04/04/2014
St Petersburg Regional Court
02/10/2014
Convicted of infliction of grievous bodily injuries leading to the death of the victim and attempted theft
Mr D., Ms T., Mr T.
15
18347/15
03/04/2015
Yelena Yuryevna NAZAROVA
Olga Pavlovna TSEYTLINA
1980
Moscow
Russian
Ivan Mikhaylovich DYACHENKO
Gagarinskiy District Court of Moscow
02/06/2014
Moscow City Court
09/10/2014
Convicted of multiple counts of fraud in conspiracy
Mr I., Ms Y., Ms K., Mr K., Ms Kan., Mr M., Ms Zh., Ms M., Ms. L., Ms Kur., Mr Kl., Mr R., Ms B., Ms S., Ms Kon., Ms Ch.
16
23551/15
27/04/2015
Aleksandr Valentinovich POLYANSKIY
1973
Irkutsk
Russian
Viktoriya Viktorovna ARZHAYEVA
Muscovskiy Town Court of the Kemerovo Region
07/08/2014
Kemerovo Regional Court
28/10/2014
Convicted of murder
Mr Sh.
17
56844/15
03/11/2015
Aleksey Anatolyevich STEPANOV
1977
Tyumen
Russian
Zheleznodorozhnuy Town Court of the Krasnoyarsk Region
01/08/2014
Krasnoyarsk Regional Court
18/06/2015
Convicted of several counts of attempted drug dealing in conspiracy and illegal storage of drugs
Mr S.
18
61560/15
30/11/2015
Anton Sergeyevich CHIKISHEV
1980
Sochi
Russian
Justice of the Peace
of the 90th Court Circuit
of the Adlerskiy District
of Sochi
26/03/2015
Adlerskiy District Court
of Sochi of the Krasnodar Region
29/04/2015
Convicted of malicious evasion of payment of maintenance allowance for a child
Ms B.
19
5010/16
16/12/2015
Natalya Pavlovna VELICHKO
1956
Chelyabinsk
Russian
Troitskiy District Court of the Chelyabinsk Region
13/0/2015
Chelyabinsk Regional Court
17/06/2015
Convicted of numerous counts of abuse of power
Ms D.O., Mr A., Ms B., Mr I.A., Ms A., Ms D.M., Ms Y.M., Mr I.D., Ms P., Mr Y.V.
Full & Egal Universal Law Academy