Published on 25 April 2022
SECOND SECTION
Application no. 12191/20
Alexandr GOSUDAREV
against the Republic of Moldova
lodged on 2 March 2020
communicated on 6 April 2022
SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE
The application concerns the applicant’s deprivation of liberty pending trial allegedly in the absence of a reasonable suspicion that he had committed an offence. The applicant’s business was trading with crypto currency. At one point he purchased bitcoins from a person who later turned out to be a drug dealer selling drugs over internet for bitcoins. The applicant was accused of being a member of the drug dealer’s criminal gang and placed under house arrest.
The applicant complains under Article 5 § 1 of the Convention that there was no reasonable suspicion that he was a member of the drug dealer’s criminal gang.
QUESTION TO THE PARTIES
Was the applicant deprived of his liberty in breach of Article 5 § 1 of the Convention? In particular, was the applicant’s house arrest based on a reasonable suspicion that he had committed an offence (see Muşuc v. Moldova, no. 42440/06, §§ 29-34, 6 November 2007)?