THIRD SECTION
DECISION
Application no. 60123/10
Yuriy Vladimirovich SOKOLOV against Russia
and 15 other applications
(see list appended)
The European Court of Human Rights (Third Section), sitting on 18 December 2018 as a Committee composed of:
Alena Poláčková, President,
Dmitry Dedov,
Jolien Schukking, judges,
and Stephen Phillips, 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 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. The facts of the cases, as submitted by the parties, may be summarised as follows.
4. On various dates between 2009 and 2011 the applicants were criminally prosecuted and convicted of various offences.
5. The applicants’ convictions were based among other evidence on the statements of one or more witnesses for prosecution, which were made during pre-trial stages of the proceedings and read out in open court while those witnesses were absent.
6. Allowing the witnesses’ pre-trial statements as evidence the trial courts in their judgments relied on the impossibility to locate them, and/or their refusal to appear at court, and/or remoteness of their place of residence as well as engagements existing at the material time and/or their poor state of health that made impossible for them to appear before the court.
7. The convictions were based on a multiplicity of evidence, including statements by the applicants made at the pre-trial stage and at trial in the presence of their lawyers, trial statements by the police officers, other witnesses for prosecution, material and documentary evidence. The domestic courts analysed the witnesses’ pre-trial statements and established their coherence and consistency with other evidence.
8. The judgments of the trial courts were upheld on appeal.
COMPLAINTS
9. The applicants complained under Article 6 §§ 1 and 3 (d) of the Convention that the domestic courts had not provided good reasons for reading-out of the pre-trial statements of the witnesses for prosecution and thus the applicants had been unable to have those witnesses examined at the trial.
10. Mrs Zhukova (application no. 36038/11) complained in addition under Articles 3, 5 § 1 (c), 5 § 2, 5 § 4, 6 § 1, 6 § 3 (b), 6 § 2, 13 of the Convention.
THE LAW
11. The Court first considers that in accordance with Rule 42 § 1 of the Rules of Court, the applications listed in the appended table should be joined, given their common legal background.
12. The respondent Government in their observations argued that applicants had had a fair hearing in the determination of the criminal charges against them in accordance with Article 6 § 1 of the Convention. They argued that the applicants’ convictions were based on other abundant evidence. Referring to the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure of the Russian Federation, as well as the relevant interpretative guidelines and practice of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation and the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation, the Government contended that the Russian legal system had afforded the applicants sufficient procedural safeguards aimed at securing their right to examine witnesses testifying against them and guarantees of a fair trial.
13. Certain applicants disagreed, while the others did not provide specific arguments.
14. 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 (dec.), 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, as well as certain other complaints of Mrs Zhukova (application no. 36038/11) under Articles 3, 5 § 1 (c), 5 § 2, 5 § 4, 6 § 1, 6 § 3 (b), 6 § 2, 13 of the Convention, which were not communicated to the Government, 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 24 January 2019.
Stephen PhillipsAlena Poláčková
RegistrarPresident
APPENDIX
No.
Application
no.
Date of introduction
Applicant name
Date of birth
Place of residence
Represented by
Date of the trial and appeal courts’ judgments
Convicted of
Witness absent from trial
60123/10
07/09/2010
Yuriy Vladimirovich SOKOLOV
16/02/1963
Moscow
Oksana Vladimirovna PREOBRAZHENSKAYA
Lyublinskiy District Court
of Moscow
11/03/2011
Moscow City Court
05/05/2010
Convicted of robbery in conspiracy
Mr I.,
Mr S.
61877/10
02/10/2010
Yevgeniy Yevgenyevich CHUGRIN
14/02/1982
Tambov
Vladimir Yuryevich ZYABLOV
09/10/1979
Tambov
Military Court
of the Tambov Garrison
19/04/2010
Military Court
of the Moscow Command
23/07/2010
Convicted of abuse of power in conspiracy
Mr B.,
Mr A.
71574/10
17/11/2010
Georgiy Leonidovich BALDIN
21/06/1978
Spassk-Dalniy
Mayya Daniyalovna TOPOLSKOVA
Ussuriyskiy Town Court
of the Primorsk Region
19/06/2009
Primorsk Regional Court
01/03/2010
Convicted of murder
Mrs P.,
Mr Z.,
Mr K.
73033/10
01/12/2010
Yevgeniy Viktorovich GRAKOVICH
14/06/1955
Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk
South-Sakhalinskiy Town Court
09/03/2010
Sakhalinsk Regional Court
09/06/2010
Convicted of abuse of power
Mr K.,
Mrs A.
1093/11
12/12/2010
Olga Petrovna KONYAKHINA
26/11/1962
Moscow
Valeriy Ivanovich PRILEPSKIY
Preobrazhenskiy District Court of Moscow
29/06/2010
Moscow City Court
13/09/2010
Convicted of multiple counts of fraud
Mrs E.-R., Mr N.
1111/11
22/04/2011
Yevgeniy Nikolayevich ROZENTSVEYG
30/01/1981
Belorechenskiy
Cheremkhovskiy Town Court of the Irkutsk Region
22/10/2010
Irkutsk Regional Court
20/04/2011
Convicted of assault and robbery
Mr A.
12601/11
27/01/2011
Igor Vladimirovich NIKITIN
29/03/1989
Tsivilsk
Novocheboksarskiy Town Court of the Chuvash Republic
16/07/2010
Supreme Court
of the Chuvash Republic
28/09/2010
Convicted of assault of a group of people in conspiracy
Mr S.,
Mrs S.
14030/11
15/02/2011
Yelena Vyacheslavovna MASHKOVSKAYA
16/06/1976
Novorossiysk
Yevgeniy Anatolyevich LEVIN
Justice of the Peace
of the 242nd Court Circuit
of the Prikubanskiy District of Krasnodar
17/08/2010
Prikubanskiy District Court of Krasnodar
17/11/2010
Krasnodar Regional Court
15/12/2010
Convicted of failure to perform a duty of bringing up a minor
Mr S.,
Mrs L.,
Mrs Sh.
16036/11
15/02/2011
Sergey Gennadyevich ORLOV
06/07/1983
Komsomolskoye
Komsomolskiy District Court of the Chuvash Republic
13/12/2010
Supreme Court of the Chuvash Republic
10/03/2011
Convicted of extortion and assault
Mr G.
25798/11
21/03/2011
Yevgeniy Valeryevich SHEREMETYEV
20/11/1969
Moscow
Khoroshevskiy District Court of Moscow
08/06/2010
The Moscow City Court
01/11/2010
Convicted of sexual assault and threat of murder
Mr Sh.,
Mr K.,
Mr R.,
Mr F.
26088/11
17/03/2011
Aleksey Aleksandrovich NOVIKOV
20/07/1977
Dimitrovgrad
Dimitrovgradskiy Town Court of the Ulyanovsk Region
10/08/2010
Ulyanovsk Regional Court
29/09/2010
Convicted of attempted drug dealing in conspiracy
Mr K.
36038/11
06/05/2011
Larisa Nikolayevna ZHUKOVA
03/03/1965
Yekaterinburg
Justice of the Peace
of the 7th Court Circuit
of the Ordzhonikidzevskiy District of the Yekaterinburg
03/04/2009
Ordzhonikidzevskiy District Court of Yekaterinburg
14/10/2010
Sverdlovsk Regional Court
08/06/2011
Convicted of intentional infliction of light injuries
Mr S.
74784/11
17/11/2011
Ruslan Naibsoltanovich AKHYADOV
19/09/1968
Kushchevskaya
Tatyana Sergeyevna MOYSHINA
Kushchevskiy District Court of the Krasnodar Region
26/01/2011
Krasnodar Regional Court
18/05/2011
Convicted of attempted fraud in conspiracy
Mr M.
74794/11
17/11/2011
Khadishat Shamkhanovna AKHYADOVA
17/03/1965
Kushchevskaya
Tatyana Sergeyevna MOYSHINA
Kushchevskiy District Court of the Krasnodar Region
26/01/2011
Krasnodar Regional Court
18/05/2011
Convicted of attempted fraud in conspiracy
Mr M.
75911/11
03/11/2011
Ararat Rafikovich APINYAN
13/06/1967
Novosibirsk
Oktaybrskiy District Court
of Novosibirsk
20/12/2010
Novosibirsk Regional Court
11/05/2011
Convicted of abuse of power with use of violence in conspiracy
Mr S.
76399/11
30/09/2011
Sergey Aleksandrovich MONETOV
29/06/1975
Sheksna
Vytegorskiy District Court
of the Vologda Region
18/02/2011
Vologda Regional Court
07/04/2011
Convicted of infliction of grievous bodily injuries that led to the victim’s death and battery
Mr B.,
Mr N.
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