LEBEDEV AND BODNAR v. RUSSIA and 9 other applications

No.

Application no.

Date of introduction

Applicant’s name

Year of birth

Representative’s name and location

Factual information

Medical evidence of ill-treatment

Date of first complaint

Decision issued in response to complaint of ill-treatment

Decision under Article 125 of the CCrP

Appeal decision

Information relating to conviction

Other complaints under well-established case-law

52734/16*

05/09/2016

Denis Dmitriyevich LEBEDEV

1986

Pavel Dmitriyevich BODNAR

1995

Ilnur Ilgizovich Sharapov

Moscow

On 03/08/2014 the applicants, supporters of the Russian opposition leader A. Navalnyy, participated in an action aimed at collecting information on real estate owned by state officials in the Moscow Region. When they arrived in the Akulinino village, they were attacked by a number of men from a private security company, who beat the applicants and other participants of the rally. The incident, which was videotaped by the applicants’ colleagues, took place in the presence of a number of police officers who did not interfere and watched the events unfold.

First applicant: medical certificate by the Moscow clinical hospital no.1 of 06/08/2014- marginal fracture of the external condyle of the left tibia without displacement; medical certificate by the Moscow Institute of Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation no. 3130 of 03/06/2015: the applicant underwent hospital treatment between 18/05/2015 and 03/06/2015 due to the consequences of the trauma of the left knee joint.

Second applicant: medical certificate by the Moscow clinical hospital no. 39 of 03/08/2014-closed head injury, knee and elbow contusion.

1) Shortly after the incident the applicants complained to the Barybino police department/Between 16/09/2014 and 23/06/2015 six refusals to open a criminal case into the ill-treatment were issued, all of which, expect for the last one of 23/06/2015, were overruled by the investigators’ superiors as unlawful and premature.

2) On 17/09/2014 the applicants complained to the head of the investigative committee of the Russian Federation about the failure of the police to take steps to protect them from the beatings/On 17/10/2014 and 15/05/2015 refusals to open a criminal case as the implicated police officers denied witnessing the incident.

On 17/12/2015 the applicants appealed against the authorities’ failure to investigate the ill-treatment and the police’s failure to take steps to protect them / On 21/12/2015 the Domodedovo Town Court dismissed both complaints on procedural grounds /On 28/04/2016 the Moscow City Court upheld those decisions on appeal.

53703/18*

27/10/2018

Aleksandr Yevgenyevich BOLDYREV

1968

Andrey Yuryevich YUROV

1968

Olga Anatolyevna Gnezdilova

Berlin

The applicants are prominent human rights defenders who were attacked by unidentified individuals for political reasons:

a) On 01/07/2014 the first applicant was attacked in Voronezh by several people who punched him and poured "brilliant green" disinfectant over his face.

b) On 27/02/2015 the second applicant was attacked by three men who punched him and sprayed him in the eyes with "brilliant green" disinfectant from syringes.

First applicant: medical certificate of the State outpatient hospital no.7 of 01/07/2014: chemical burn of the right eye of the first degree, hematomas on both hips.

Second applicant: expert examination report by the Voronezh Forensic Bureau of 17/04/2015: burns to the conjunctiva and cornea of both eyes.

First applicant - on 01/07/2014 complaint to the police/On 02/07/2014 criminal case opened/ the investigation suspended on fourteen occasions for the failure to identify the perpetrators/ on 21/05/2017 the investigation in the case terminated due to expiration of the statute of limitations.

Second applicant - on 27/02/2015 complaint to the police/On 27/02/2015 criminal case opened/ the investigation suspended on at least two occasions for the failure to identify the perpetrators/On 22/05/2017 the investigation in the case terminated due to expiration of the statute of limitations.

The first applicant appealed against the termination of 21/05/2017 to the Tsentralnyy District Court in Voronezh/On 06/03/2018 the court rejected the appeal and upheld the impugned decision/On 27/04/2018 the Voronezh Regional Court upheld that decision on appeal.

On 04/09/2018 the second applicant appealed against the termination of 22/05/2017 to the Tsentralnyy District Court in Voronezh/the court attempted to examine the case on 4 occasions (last- on 25/09/2018), but to no avail as the criminal case file had been lost by the police.

43266/19*

05/08/2019

Aleksandr Vladimirovich IVANOV

1959

Konstantin Aleksandrovich Markin

Velikiy Novgorod

On 05/05/2018 the applicant participated in Moscow in a rally against President Putin’s re-election. The event was guarded by the police. One of counterdemonstrators from the para-military group Kazaks, Mr Z., subjected the applicant to beatings, shouting that the applicant and other participants of the rally were “paid by the Americans”. The police did not interfere and observed the incident. The events, including the incident, were videotaped by participants of the rally.

Medical certificate of 05/05/2018 by the Moscow Clinical Hospital no.1: laceration and contusion of the back of the nose, fracture of the nasal bones without external deformation.

Forensic examination report of 15/05/2018 by the Moscow Forensics Bureau no. 1: laceration and contusion of the back of the nose, fracture of the nasal bones without external deformation.

On 07/05/2018 complaint to the Moscow police, in which the applicant specified that he had been beaten by Mr Z., that there was a video of the incident, and that the police took no steps to interfere /Between 18/05/2018 and 26/02/2019 four refusals to open a criminal case for the lack of the event of a crime were issued. Each decision, except for the last one of 26/02/2019, was overruled by the investigators’ superiors as unlawful and premature.

The applicant appealed against the first three refusals to the Taganskiy District Court, but each time his complaint was left without examination as the impugned decision has been overruled by the investigators’ superiors.

Between 29/04/2019 and 09/04/2020 the applicant lodged three ill-treatment complaints with the Justice of the Peace of Moscow circuit no. 369 demanding that a criminal case be opened by way of private prosecution/His complaints were rejected on procedural grounds, the last decision was taken on 15/06/2020/On 31/07/2020 the Tverskoy District Court of Moscow upheld that decision on appeal.

56247/19*

09/10/2019

Mark Izrailevich GALPERIN

1968

Nikolay Sergeyevich Zboroshenko

Mytishchi

On 31/05/2015 in Moscow the applicants participated in a manifestation against Russian military actions in Ukraine. They were attacked by individuals who claimed to act on behalf of true patriots of Russia. The counterdemonstrators punched and kicked the applicants, poured “brilliant green” disinfectant on them and called them “traitors” and “agents of the West”. The first applicant was hit in the face.

First applicant: medical certificate by the Moscow clinical hospital no. 5 of 31/05/2015 - soft tissue contusion of the left cheek.

On 31/05/2015 the applicants complained to the Krasnoselskiy district police department in Moscow/On 09/06/2015, 12/09/2016 and 28/06/2017 refusals to open a criminal case/The applicants appealed against the refusals, each of them was subsequently overruled by the investigators’ superiors as premature and unlawful and a new inquiry was ordered. No investigation into the matter has been opened to date.

On 29/01/2019 the Meshchanskiy District Court of Moscow allowed the applicants’ complaint against the last refusal to open a criminal case and ordered that a new inquiry be opened/On 21/05/2019 the Moscow City Court upheld that decision on appeal.

28958/20*

13/05/2020

Sergey Fedorovich RUBEZHNOY

1974

Vladimir Vladimirovich Koshev

Stavropol

On 26/06/2018 the applicant, a high-ranking police officer, was arrested on suspicion of organisation of prostitution and bribery. On 27/06/2018 he was placed in SIZO-1 of Stavropol and on 29/06/2018 he refused to give any evidence. On 02/08/2018 he was taken to the remand prison in Cherkessk, about 120 km from Stavropol. There, in cell no. 10, two inmates (Yuriy and Isa) told him that they had been instructed to force him into confession by any means, including rape. When the applicant refused, Isa beat him on the head with a plastic bottle filled with water and threatened him with rape. Yuriy threatened the applicant with the use of psychotropic medications. On 03/08/2018 the beatings and rape threats continued, the applicant was given psychotropic medication, refused services of his lawyers and agreed to give self-incriminating statements. On 04/08/2018 and 06/08/2018, in the presence of a State-appointed counsel, the applicant gave on video self-incriminating statements. On 07/08/2018 Yuriy and Isa left the remand prison. On the same day the applicant refused the services of the State-appointed counsel. On 10/08/2018 he was taken back to SIZO-1. On 13/08/2018 the lawyers of the applicant’s own choosing were again admitted to the proceedings, and on 20/08/2018 the applicant told them about the ill-treatment.

No medical documents showing physical marks on the applicant’s body have been submitted. On 11/01/2019 the Centre of Forensic Expert Examinations of Stavropol “Expertpro” examined the videos of the applicant’s interrogations of 04/08/2018 and 06/08/2018: the footage disclosed signs of psychological pressure to which the applicant had been subjected by third persons and which affected his behaviour during the interrogations; the applicant’s evidence was obtained as a result of pressure, direct or indirect, by third persons.

On 21/08/2018 complaint to the Karachayevo-Cherkessiya Prosecutor/ Refusals to open a criminal case: 11/10/2018, 06/12/2018, 05/01/2019, last - 19/02/2019 (set aside on 09/12/2019). All refusals were overruled by the investigators’ superiors as unlawful and premature /The decision of 09/12/2019 instructed the investigators to question "Yuriy and Isa" detained with the applicant in Cherkessk.

On 20/08/2019 the applicant challenged the last refusal of 19/02/2019 before the Cherkessk Town Court/On 10/12/2019 the court left the complaint unexamined as on 09/12/2019 the impugned refusal had been overruled /On 04/02/2020 the Supreme Court of Karachayevo-Cherkessiya upheld that decision on appeal.

Proceedings against the applicant are still pending

23983/21*

12/04/2021

Kubanychbek USON UULU

1995

Anton Igorevich Ryzhov

Moscow

The applicant is a Kyrgyz national. On 22/06/2019 he was robbed by Messrs M. and K. in Moscow, who had lured him to a meeting under the pretext of a date arranged via a dating app. The culprits beat the applicant in the face, strangled him and handcuffed him. Then they took the applicant’s money and made him confess on video to his homosexual orientation and threatened to send the video to his Muslim family in Kyrgyzstan if he would not pay them more money by 24/06/2020.

On 24/06/2020 the applicant complained to the police and on the same date Mr K. was arrested. When questioned K. stated that the crime had been motivated by his hate against gay people. On 24/06/2019 a criminal case was opened, and the applicant was granted victim status. On 16/11/2020 the applicant requested access to the case file concerning K.’s accomplice M. He discovered that on 24/01/2020 the criminal case in respect of M. had been suspended for the failure to identify him, and no steps had been taken to this end, despite the fact that his mobile phone number and address were in the case file.

On 05/08/2020 the Izmaylovskiy District Court of Moscow convicted K. of robbery and sentenced him to 3 years’ imprisonment. The sentence was upheld on 20/10/2020 by the Moscow City Court and on 10/03/2021 by the Second Cassation Court. The courts found that the homophobic motive of the crime against the applicant was not supported by the case file.

Art. 14 – prohibition of discrimination in conjunction with Art. 3 complaints - The applicant alleged that he had been subjected to targeted violence on account of his sexual orientation, and it did not appear that any reasonable steps had been taken to examine the role which homophobic motives might have played in the applicant’s ill-treatment

25590/21*

27/04/2021

Yevgeniy Vadimovich FEDOROV

1979

Anton Igorevich Ryzhov

Moscow

The applicant is a bisexual. On 20/04/2017 he was lured by D. to a rented flat under the pretext of a date arranged via a gay dating site. Eight men waited for the applicant in the flat. They told him that D. was 16 years old and threatened that he would be imprisoned for paedophilia if he did not give them money. The men beat the applicant on the head, asking him to make a video statement about his homosexuality. They also threatened to tell his employer and his family about it. They ultimately let him go and sent him a link on a messaging application through which to make a payment.

The applicant did not have physical injuries recorded.

On 18/03/2019 he was diagnosed with depression caused by the incident on 20/04/2017.

On 04/10/2017 complaint with the Moscow police (the applicant had been scared to reveal his homosexuality and therefore had not lodged the complaint immediately after the incident), in which he described the ill-treatment, gave the address of the flat where it had happened, detailed physical descriptions of the eight men who had ill-treated him, the full names, cell phone numbers, social networking accounts and photographs of 4 of them (which he found through the link which they had sent him), cell phone number and e-mail address of D. and the print-outs of their correspondence preceding the attack. He also provided links to social networking communities giving similar accounts of ill-treatment at the same address. He stressed that the crime against him had been motivated by hate against homosexuals / Between 2017 and 2020 ten refusals to open a criminal case were issued, the last one on 03/11/2020. Each decision was overruled by the investigators’ superiors as premature and unlawful and additional investigative steps were ordered. However, those orders remained uncompiled with.

The applicant appealed against several refusals to the Preobrazhenskiy District Court of Moscow/ On 21/01/2021 the court allowed the last complaint having stated that the investigators had failed to comply with the repeated instructions of their superiors.

Art. 14 - Prohibition of discrimination in conjunction with Art. 3 complaints - The applicant alleged that he had been subjected to targeted violence on account of his sexual orientation, and it did not appear that any reasonable steps had been taken to examine the role which homophobic motives might have played in the applicant’s ill-treatment

33871/21*

19/06/2021

Aleksandr Aleksandrovich LYUBAK

1984

Sergey Valeryevich FROLOV

1900

Anton Igorevich Ryzhov

Moscow

The applicants belong to LGBTQ community. On 29/08/2019 they were attacked in Moscow by a group of unidentified individuals on the grounds of the applicants’ sexual orientation. The applicants were insulted, beaten, and not robbed.

First applicant: medical examinations on 29/08/2019 and 01/09/2019 by trauma department of State hospital no. 3: trauma of the nail plate of the fingers, abrasion of the knee joint and lumbar region.

Second applicant: medical certificate issued upon hospitalisation on 29/08/2019 at the State Bakhrushin Brothers hospital, date illegible: bruised left supraorbital wound, abrasion to the left knee.

On 29/08/2019 the applicants complained to the police/On 06/09/2019 the police refused to open a criminal case for the lack of the event of a crime, the decision was overruled by the supervising prosecutor and on 06/11/2019 a criminal case was opened, and the investigation suspended shortly thereafter.

On 13/08/2020 the applicants challenged the investigators’ inaction and the lack of information from the authorities before the Perovskiy District Court of Moscow. On 09/12/2020 the court dismissed the complaint as unsubstantiated/ this decision was upheld by the Moscow City Court on 03/02/2021.

Art. 14 - Prohibition of discrimination in conjunction with Article 3 complaints - The applicants alleged that they had been subjected to targeted violence on account of their sexual orientation, and it did not appear that any reasonable steps had been taken to examine the role which homophobic motives might have played in the applicants’ ill-treatment

7076/22*

22/01/2022

Khurshed Khabibovich BOBOKHONOV

1992

Anton Igorevich Ryzhov

Nizhniy Novgorod

The applicant is a bisexual national of Tajikistan living in Moscow. On 09/08/2019 the applicant met A., with whom he had been in contact via a social network, and went to a house with him, where three men were waiting for him. Upon their demand, the applicant gave them all his belongings including his mobile phone, however, he refused to unlock it. Then the applicant was beaten up by the four men (punches, kicks and hits with an axe handle in the neck, face, torso and back, 4 shots at close range from a traumatic pistol, until he disclosed the password to his phone. During the beatings, the men were saying discriminatory statements against LGBTQ community, told the applicant that such people have no right to live and should be killed. The men then forced the applicant to confess on camera to being homosexual, blamed him for being gay and demanded to stop the behaviour that contradicts Islam. The men demanded payment of RUB 100,000 (about EUR 1,500) as a punishment for being homosexual. The next day, one of the men escorted the applicant to the bank, but the applicant managed to escape. The men repeatedly called him and threatened to send the video confession to his family.

Certificate of 12/08/2019 by the trauma unit of Moscow town outpatient hospital no. 3: bruises of the soft tissues of the neck and chest. Photos of his injuries (including the trace of a rubber bullet).

1) Procedure in respect of A.

On 21/08/2019 A. was arrested, however the other three men managed to abscond/On 23/08/2019 a criminal case was opened against A., the applicant was granted victim status and questioned. He stressed that he had been beaten up for his sexual orientation. On 17/10/2019 A. was convicted of aggravated robbery and sentenced to 3 years and 9 months of imprisonment.

2) Procedure in respect of the other men/On 25/09/2019 a part of the criminal case in respect of the three men was severed from the A.’s case.

On 25/12/2019 the investigator suspended the proceedings for failure to identify the culprits, the applicant was not informed thereof. The applicant’s request of 13/05/2020 for access to the case file went unanswered. On 25/06/2020 the applicant complained to the supervising prosecutor and then the investigators allowed the applicant to access the part of the case file reflecting steps taken with his participation, whereas the rest of the file could be accessed only upon completion of the proceedings.

1) On 06/12/2019 the applicant unsuccessfully contested A.’s conviction before the Krasnogorsk Town Court claiming that the trial court had failed to analyse the hate motive/The District Court’s decision to dismiss the complaint was upheld by the Moscow Regional Court on 24/12/2019.

2) The applicant contested the inaction of the investigators and the lack of access to the case file.

On 11/06/2021, the Krasnogorsk Town Court dismissed the complaint as the applicant had been granted partial access to the file/ The applicant appealed claiming that he was not able to contest the ineffectiveness of the investigation for the lack of information on the steps taken by the investigators/On 02/09/2021 the dismissal was upheld by the Moscow Regional Court.

Art. 14 - prohibition of discrimination in conjunction with Art. 3 complaint - The applicant alleged that he had been subjected to targeted violence on account of his sexual orientation, and it did not appear that any reasonable steps had been taken to examine the role which homophobic motives might have played in the applicant’s ill-treatment

36512/22*

30/06/2022

Anna Vladislavovna TUGOLUKOVA

1976

Yuliya Vladimirovna Mukhina

Moscow

On the night between 30 and 31/10/2020 the applicant, who was inebriated, fell asleep on a bus and woke up in a basement from Mr A. having sexual intercourse with her.

Medical expert evaluation no. 2034300541 of 31/10/2020 by the Moscow Forensic Bureau no. 3: bruising in the anterior region of the left thigh, abrasions in the anterior region of the left forearm, left subcostal region, right breast, posterior region of the left thigh, abrasions in the lumbar region, posterior region of the right forearm. Semen found on a swab from the external genital area.

Medical expert evaluation no. 2045715608 of 02/11/2020 by the Moscow Forensic Bureau, molecule-genetics laboratory: semen was found on a swab from the external genital area.

On 31/11/2020 rape complaint lodged with the Mezchanskiy district investigative committee/ On 03/12/2020 and 19/09/2021 two verbatim refusals to open a criminal case for the lack of corpus delicti, each overruled by the investigators’ superiors as the investigators failed to commission forensic examination of Mr A.’s semen and based their statements on the statements of his friends according to whom the applicant had not called for help.

On 13/11/2021 the applicant appealed against the last refusal to the Mezchanskiy District Courtin Moscow/On 02/12/2021 the court set the appeal aside as the impugned refusal had been overruled and further inquiry was ordered by the investigators’ superiors/On 01/03/2022 the Moscow City Court upheld that decision on appeal.