Communicated on 20 September 2017
THIRD SECTION
Application no 1519/13
Sergey Igorevich KOTELNIKOV against Russia
and 4 other applications
(see list appended)
STATEMENT OF FACTS
1. The applicants are Russian nationals who served or are still serving their sentence in correctional colony no. IK-4 in the village of Fornosovo, Leningrad Region (for the relevant information about the applicants see appended table no. 1 below).
A. The circumstances of the cases
2. The facts of the cases, as submitted by the applicants, may be summarised as follows.
1. Conditions of detention
3. Upon arrival at the IK-4 facility the applicants spent two weeks in the quarantine unit and then were assigned to different brigades. The dates of their assignment are set out in table no. 1.
4. The brigades’ measurement, the number of inmates per brigade, space allowed per detainee and hygienic facilities per brigade, as relevant for the periods of the applicants’ detention in the IK-4 facility, are given below in table no. 2. Each brigade’s measurement comprises a common dormitory, a wash room, a room for drying clothes, a lavatory, a political and educational room, a room of the brigade’s head officer, a dining room, a cloakroom and a storage room.
5. In view of the severe overcrowding the applicants were not provided with individual sleeping places. They had to make sleeping places for themselves on wooden pallets fixed in-between the passages. The dormitories were equipped with three-level sleeping places, where the third level was set up for the night. The brigades’ premises, including the dormitories, were humid, dirty, and infested with insects and rodents. There was no ventilation and seasonal heating. Inmates dried their clothes in the living premises, which resulted in constant stuffiness and an unpleasant smell. Natural and artificial lighting was dim. Inmates were provided with not more than two sets of toiletries per year. No hot water was available as of 2007. The running water was regularly cut off. The wash and lavatory rooms were equipped with insufficient number of sinks and toilet pans. The latter were separated from each other with thin partitions and thus did not provide adequate privacy. Inmates were allowed to take a shower once a week for ten-fifteen minutes. The water in the shower was lukewarm. Inmates had to wait for hours for their turn to take a shower. Outdoor walks were irregular and lasted for ten-twenty minutes. The walking yard, shared by a brigade, measured 30-100 square meters.
6. The colony canteen included an entrance hall (a cloakroom) of approximately 30 square meters and a dining room of about 290 square meters intended for 120 inmates. In 2009 the dining room was equipped with 5 sinks. The canteen was shared by all 13 brigades of the colony. Access to the dining room was hindered on account of severe overcrowding. Inmates were allocated ten minutes to take off overcoats, get and eat their meals. The applicants often did not manage to eat on account of the specified time limits and overcrowding. There was no ventilation in the dining room and the condensed water was falling from the ceiling and running down the walls. Unpleasant odour of rotting waste and spoiled food products pervaded the canteen. Tables and tableware were dirty; the canteen was infested with insects and rodents. Until 2012 the construction dust and plaster from constant repair works were falling to the cooking pots. The food was of a low quality.
2. Forced shaving
7. The applicants are Old Believers («староверы»). According to them, their faith requires them to wear long hair and a beard. Upon arrival at the correctional colony their heads, faces and necks were forcibly shaved by the warders.
8. The colony administration informed the applicants that their hair must not be longer than 0.3-0.5 centimetres and that shaving of faces and necks was mandatory during the period of stay in the colony. Violation of the specified regulations entailed disciplinary punishment (imposition of verbal reprimand, severe reprimand) and in case of a repeated violation – placement into the punishment isolation cell.
B. Relevant domestic law
9. The Code of Execution of Criminal Sentences of 8 January 1997 provides, as far as relevant, the following:
Article 11. Main obligations of convicts
“1. Convicts shall ... abide by the socially accepted ... sanitary and hygiene requirements.
...
3. Convicts shall abide by the lawful demands of the administration of the penitentiary establishments and bodies.
...”
Article 14. Ensuring freedom of conscience and freedom of religion of convicts
“2. The exercise of the right to freedom of conscience and freedom of religion is voluntary, provided, however, that the rules on the internal regulations of the penitentiary establishment shall not be violated ...”
Article 82. Regime in correctional colonies and its main requirements
“3. Correctional colonies have the Rules on the internal regulations of the correctional colonies, approved by the federal executive body ... in coordination with the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation.”
10. At the material time, the relevant parts of the Rules on the Internal Regulations of Correctional Colonies, approved by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation on 3 November 2005 (Order No. 205), void as of 6 January 2017, provided as follows:
“...
III. The main rights and obligations of convicts in correctional colonies
...
14. Convicts are obliged to:
fulfil the requirements of the laws and the present Rules;
...
... observe the rules of personal hygiene, have their hear, beards and moustaches (for men) cut short ...
...
119. Observance of the sanitary and hygienic and anti-epidemic rules and requirements shall be ensured in correctional colonies.
120. All convicts, arrived at the correctional colonies, are placed for the period of up to 15 days to quarantine, where they undergo primary medical examination and complex sanitisation including bathing ... cutting their hair, beards and moustaches (for men) and underarm areas short ...”
11. The currently effective Rules on the Internal Regulations of the Correctional Colonies, approved by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation on 16 December 2016 (Order No. 295) provide:
“16. Convicts are obliged to:
fulfil the requirements of the laws of the Russian Federation and of the Rules;
...
observe the rules of personal hygiene. The length of head hair (for men) is determined by taking into account the haircut by a hair cutting machine with nozzles ensuring the hair length of up to 20 millimetres. The length of a beard or moustaches (for men) shall be determined by taking into account the haircut by a hair cutting machine with nozzles ensuring the length of the beard hair of up to 9 millimetres. In case of medical indications (face injury or other medical indications that complicate shaving) convicts can be allowed to wear longer beards and moustaches;
...
126. Observance of the sanitary and hygienic and anti-epidemic rules and requirements shall be ensured in correctional colonies. All convicts, upon arrival at correctional colonies, undergo primary medical examination and complex sanitisation, cutting their hair, beards and moustaches, if any, short (for men). In accordance with medical indications, a complete haircut can be performed ...”
COMPLAINTS
1. The applicants complained under Articles 3 and 13 of the Convention about the conditions of their detention in the correctional colony and lack of an effective remedy in this regard.
2. The applicants also complained about regular forced shaving of their heads, faces and necks by colony warders. They further alleged that they did not have an effective remedy in respect of this grievance.
QUESTIONS TO THE PARTIES
1. Were the conditions of the applicants’ detention in correctional colony no. IK-4 in the village of Fornosovo, Leningrad Region, compatible with the requirements of Article 3 of the Convention?
2. Did the applicants have at their disposal an effective domestic remedy for their complaint about the conditions of detention, as required by Article 13 of the Convention?
3. Having regard to the shaving of the applicants by colony warders:
(a) Was the applicants’ mental suffering on account of their shaving sufficiently serious to amount to inhuman and degrading treatment within the meaning of Article 3 of the Convention? If so, has there been a breach of Article 3 of the Convention in respect of the applicants?
(b) Was there an interference with their right to respect for their private life within the meaning of Article 8 § 1 of the Convention? If so, was that interference in accordance with the law and necessary in terms of Article 8 § 2?
(c) Was there an interference with the applicants’ freedom of religion, within the meaning of Article 9 § 1 of the Convention? In particular, was the practice of wearing long hair and a beard a manifestation of the applicants’ freedom of religion within the meaning of this provision? If so, was that interference prescribed by law and necessary in terms of Article 9 § 2?
(d) Has there been an effective domestic remedy for the applicants to complain about their shaving by the colony warders, as required by Article 13 of the Convention?
(е) Were the colony officials aware of the applicants’ religious convictions?
APPENDIX
Table no. 1
No.
Application
no.
Lodged on
Applicant’s name
date of birth
place of residence
Represented by
Period of detention
in IK-4 facility
Dates of assignment to brigades
1519/13
29/11/2012
Sergey Igorevich KOTELNIKOV
20/12/1982
St Petersburg
Olga Andreyevna STASYUK
26 April 2004 -11 December 2012
11.05.04 - 11.04.05 brigade No. 6
11.04.05 - 11.12.12 brigade No. 1
56270/15
29/11/2012
Gennadiy Aleksandrovich MIRONOV
04/02/1987
Fornosovo, Leningrad Region
Olga Andreyevna STASYUK
8 April 2006 - pending
24.04.06 - 25.12.07 brigade No. 6
25.12.07 - 02.06.08 brigade No. 5
02.06.08 - 05.07.08 brigade No. 11
05.07.08 - 21.07.08 brigade No. 10
21.07.08 - 16.11.09 brigade No. 11
16.11.09 - 18.06.10 brigade No. 1
18.06.10 - 21.06.10 brigade No. 11
21.06.10 - 18.10.11 brigade No. 6
18.10.11 - 20.05.12 brigade No. 5
20.05.12 - pending brigade No. 2
56271/15
29/11/2012
Nikita Nikolayevich SOKOLOV
15/05/1977
St Petersburg
Maksim Vladimirovich SEMENOV
26 January 2012 - 9 December 2013
09.02.12 - 09.12.13 brigade No. 11
56272/15
29/11/2012
Stepan Segeyevich SHARKOV
20/04/1991
Vyborg
Viktoriya Pavlovna PROKOFYEVA
24 June 2010 - 5 March 2013
08.07.10 - 24.06.12 brigade No. 9
24.06.12 – 05.03.13 brigade No. 11
56273/15
29/11/2012
Vyacheslav Aleksandrovich TIMOFEYEV
18/07/1983
Fornosovo, Leningrad Region
Olga Andreyevna STASYUK
15 December 2009 - pending
30.12.09 - 12.09.11 brigade No. 11
12.09.11 - 24.06.12 brigade No. 3
24.06.12 - 05.07.12 brigade No. 5
05.07.12 - pending brigade No. 1
Table no. 2
Brigade
No.
Brigade area
in square metres
Number
of detainees per brigade
Space
per detainee
in square metres
Number
of sleeping places
Hygienic facilities per brigade
toilet pans
urinals
sinks
1
230 (before 2009)
180
1.3
5
4 (as of 2010)
6
578 (as of 2009)
287
2
240
2
152
136
1.1
100
4
2
4
3
200
96
2.1
100
4
5
5
5
150
123
1.2
103
3
-
8
6
230-250
137
1.8
110
5
3
5
9
168
128
1.3
103
5
3
10
10
180
107
1.7
99
4
2
6
11
186
142
1.3
133
4
5
5
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