Communicated on 14 January 2020
Published on 3 February 2020
THIRD SECTION
Application no. 58388/14
Dmitriy Aleksandrovich GROMOVOY against Russia
and 8 other applications
(see list appended)
The applicants are Russian nationals. They are all convicted prisoners serving sentences of imprisonment. They complain under Articles 3 and 13 of the Convention about their confinement in metal cages before the courts during their participation in various criminal, administrative and civil proceedings. The individual circumstances of each applicant regarding the nature and the details of the proceedings, as well as the form of the applicants’ participation in those proceedings (in person and/or by means of a video link) are summarised in the appendix below.
The applicants in applications nos. 20910/18 and 31924/18 also raised other complaints, subject of well-established case-law of the Court, which are summarised in the appendix below.
QUESTIONS TO THE PARTIES
1. Have the applicants been subjected to degrading treatment, in breach of Article 3 of the Convention, on account of their confinement in metal cages for the purposes of their participation in various criminal, administrative and civil proceedings (see, by analogy, Svinarenko and Slyadnev v. Russia [GC], nos. 32541/08 and 43441/08, §§ 113‑39, ECHR 2014 (extracts), and Karachentsev v. Russia, no. 23229/11, §§ 44-54, 17 April 2018)?
2. Did the applicants have at their disposal an effective domestic remedy for their complaints under Articles 3 of the Convention regarding their confinement in metal cages, as required by Article 13 of the Convention (see Svinarenko and Slyadnev, cited above, § 87, and Yaroslav Belousov v. Russia, nos. 2653/13 and 60980/14, § 113, 4 October 2016)?
3. The Government may, if they so wish, submit comments on the other complaints raised by the applicants (applications nos. 20910/18 and 31924/18), which are the subject of the Court’s well-established case-law.
APPENDIX
No.
Application No.
Applicant name,
date of birth,
place of residence
Date of introduction
Holding of convicted prisoners in metal cages during their participation in civil, administrative and criminal proceedings
Other complaints under the well-established case-law
58388/14
Dmitriy Aleksandrovich GROMOVOY
11/10/1983
Chelyabinsk
05/07/2014
Articles 3 and 13: holding the applicant, a convicted prisoner, in a metal cage during several sets of proceedings in which he sought to recover pecuniary and non‑pecuniary damages following the acknowledgement of his right to rehabilitation (15 January, 28 May, 17‑18 September, 14 October, 20 and 24 November, 9 December 2014, and 3 March 2015, Snezhinsk Town Court of the Chelyabinsk Region).
64784/17
Oleg Gennadyevich OSYANIN
01/03/1966
Kazan
13/07/2017
Articles 3 and 13: holding the applicant, a convicted prisoner, in a metal cage during the proceedings in which he sought to obtain replacement of the unserved term of his sentence with a milder penalty (23 March 2017, Bor Town Court, Nizhniy Novgorod Region; 22 June 2017, video link from remand prison SIZO-1 of Nizhniy Novgorod, Nizhniy Novgorod Regional Court).
No.
Application No.
Applicant name,
date of birth,
place of residence
Date of introduction
Holding of convicted prisoners in metal cages during their participation in civil, administrative and criminal proceedings
Other complaints under the well-established case-law
9551/18
Eduard Yuryevich YUMALOV
12/05/1970
Cherepovets
09/01/2018
Article 3: holding the applicant, a convicted prisoner, in a metal cage in the courtroom during the proceedings under the Code of Administrative Procedure by which he challenged the conditions of his transport to, and detention at, the courthouse, and his confinement in a metal cage in the courtroom in 2012 (29 September 2017, Vologda Regional Court).
17362/18
Igor Anatolyevich SOLOVYEV
16/08/1971
Rzhev
11/09/2017
Articles 3 and 13: holding the applicant, a convicted prisoner, in a metal cage during the examination of his case against the Russian Federal Penal Authority (“the FSIN”) and the Ministry of Finance for non-pecuniary damage resulting from his confinement in a metal cage for the purposes of his participation, by video link, in various proceedings in 2014-2016 (13 March 2017, video link from remand prison SIZO-1 of Nizhniy Novgorod, Nizhiy Novgorod Regional Court).
No.
Application No.
Applicant name,
date of birth,
place of residence
Date of introduction
Holding of convicted prisoners in metal cages during their participation in civil, administrative and criminal proceedings
Other complaints under the well-established case-law
20910/18
Yevgeniy Yevgenyevich SHARAPOV
17/08/1979
Syktyvkar
12/04/2018
Articles 3 and 13: holding the applicant, a convicted prisoner, in a metal cage during the examination of a civil case in which he participated as a defendant (15 March 2018, video link from remand prison SIZO-1 of Syktyvkar, Syktyvkar Town Court).
Articles 3, 6 § 2 and 13: holding the applicant in a metal cage during the examination of his criminal case on appeal (6 October and 12 October 2017, video link from remand prison SIZO-1 of Syktyvkar, Supreme Court of the Komi Republic) – see Karachentsev v. Russia, no. 23229/11, 17 April 2018.
31924/18
Yevgeniy Viktorovich GLEBOV
16/08/1978
Cherepovets
19/06/2018
Articles 3 and 13: holding the applicant, a convicted prisoner, in a metal cage on numerous occasions on the premises of the correctional colony for the purposes of his participating, by means of a video link, in various proceedings in 2016‑2018 (most recently – during the examination of the applicant’s case against the FSIN, the Ministry of Finance and the Judicial Department of the Supreme Court for non-pecuniary damage resulting from his appearance before the court in a cage, 19 April and 26 April 2018, video link from IK-4, Vologda Town Court, applicant refused to pursue the case, decision to terminate the proceedings).
Article 3 of Protocol No. 1: Constitutional ban on prisoners’ right to vote – see Anchugov and Gladkov v. Russia, nos. 11157/04 and 15162/05, 4 July 2013.
No.
Application No.
Applicant name,
date of birth,
place of residence
Date of introduction
Holding of convicted prisoners in metal cages during their participation in civil, administrative and criminal proceedings
Other complaints under the well-established case-law
1895/19
Ilya Yuryevich TIKHOMIROV
26/07/1986
Elban
19/11/2018
Articles 3 and 13: holding the applicant, a convicted prisoner, in a metal cage on the premises of the correctional colony for the purposes of his participating, by means of a video link, in the examination of his case against the correctional colony and the FSIN for non-pecuniary damages resulting from the failure to provide him with scheduled showers (21 May, 12 July, 17 August 2018, Ivdel Town Court of the Sverdlovsk Region).
12035/19
Sergey Yuryevich OSOKIN
15/03/1979
Startsevo
23/01/2019
Articles 3 and 13: holding the applicant, a convicted prisoner, in a metal cage in the courtroom during the criminal proceedings in a private prosecution case in which he participated as a victim (26 July and 8 August 2018, Justice of the Peace of the 2nd Court Circuit of the Nevyanskiy District of the Sverdlovsk Region, applicant refused from pursuing the case, decision to terminate the proceedings).
No.
Application No.
Applicant name,
date of birth,
place of residence
Date of introduction
Holding of convicted prisoners in metal cages during their participation in civil, administrative and criminal proceedings
Other complaints under the well-established case-law
19268/19
Roman Sergeyevich KALININ
05/07/1984
Chita
25/03/2019
Articles 3 and 13: holding the applicant, a convicted prisoner, in a metal cage on the premises of the correctional colony for the purposes of his participating, by means of a video link, in the examination of his case against the correctional colony and the FSIN for non-pecuniary damages resulting from the failure to provide him with scheduled showers (21 December 2018, Ivdel Town Court of the Sverdlovsk Region).
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