THIRD SECTION
DECISION
Application no. 2075/14
Maksim Sergeyevich SOLOVJOV against Russia
and 10 other applications
(see list appended)
The European Court of Human Rights (Third Section), sitting on 30 April 2019 as a Committee composed of:
Alena Poláčková, President,
Dmitry Dedov,
Jolien Schukking, judges,
and Fatoş Aracı, Deputy 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, except for Mr Solovjov who is a Lithuanian national, 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 2012 and 2016 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. The applicants, except for Mr Solovjov, Mr Zemchenkov, Mr Kovalenko, Mr Edilkhanov and Mr Ryabov (applications nos. 2075/14, 3503/14, 51471/14, 53388/14 and 61609/14 respectively), also complained under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention about the outcome of the proceedings, assessment of evidence and in the case of Mr Ovchenkov (application no. 52996/14) about the refusal to admit certain materials into evidence.
11. Mr Zemchenkov and Mr Kurashov (applications nos. 3503/14 and 35232/14 respectively) complained in addition under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention.
12. Mr Kovalenko (application no. 51471/14) further complained under Article 6 §§ 1 and 3 (b), (d) and Article 7 of the Convention.
13. Mr Tomilin (application no. 61461/14) complained also under Article 5 § 1 (a) and Article 6 § 1 of the Convention.
14. Mr Ryabov (application no. 61609/14) complained under Article 7 of the Convention.
THE LAW
15. 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.
16. The respondent Government in their observations argued that the 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.
17. Certain applicants disagreed, while the others did not provide specific arguments.
18. 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 the accessory complaints of all the applicants except for Mr Solovjov, Mr Zemchenkov, Mr Kovalenko, Mr Edilkhanov and Mr Ryabov (applications nos. 2075/14, 3503/14, 51471/14, 53388/14 and 61609/14 respectively) under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention, complaints of Mr Zemchenkov and Mr Kurashov (applications nos. 3503/14 and 35232/14 respectively) under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention, complaints of Mr Kovalenko (application no. 51471/14) under Article 6 §§ 1 and 3 (b), (d) and Article 7 of the Convention, complaints of Mr Tomilin (application no. 61461/14) under Article 5 § 1 (a) and Article 6 § 1 of the Convention, complaints of Mr Ryabov (application no. 61609/14) under Article 7 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 23 May 2019.
Fatoş AracıAlena Poláčková
Deputy RegistrarPresident
SOLOVJOV v. RUSSIA AND OTHER APPLICATIONS DECISION 1
APPENDIX
No.
Application no.
Date of introduction
Applicant name
Date of birth
Place of residence
Represented by
Date of the trial and appeal/cassation courts’ judgments
Witness absent from trial
2075/14
27/12/2013
Maksim Sergeyevich
SOLOVJOV
03/10/1992
Belavino, Moscow Region
Golovinskiy District Court of Moscow
06/08/2013
Supreme Court of the Russian Federation
17/03/2014
Convicted of attempted drug trafficking
Ms N.
3503/14
18/03/2014
Valeriy Nikolayevich ZEMCHENKOV
29/05/1969
Lepley, Republic of Mordovia
Zheleznodorozhniy District Court of Orel
26/06/2013
Supreme Court of the Russian Federation
18/08/2014
Convicted of attempted drug trafficking by an organized group on a large scale, preparation to drug trafficking by an organized group on an especially large scale, abuse of office
Ms Sh.,
Ms N.,
Mr M.,
Mr K.
33721/14
28/04/2014
Vadim Vsevolodovich GULTSEV
14/01/1956
Moscow
Voroshilovskiy District Court of Rostov-on-Don
28/12/2012
Rostov Regional Court
12/11/2013
Convicted of attempted drug trafficking on a large scale by an organized group (3 episodes), drug trafficking on a large scale by an organized group, preparation for drug trafficking on an especially large scale by an organized group
Ms P.
35232/14
28/04/2014
Aleksandr Aleksandrovich
KURASHOV
13/06/1992
Barashevo, Republic of Mordovia
Vladimir Vladimirovich
Nabokov
Pushkino Town Court of the Moscow Region
24/09/2013
Moscow Regional Court
14/11/2013
Convicted of murder
Mr D.
35378/14
25/12/2014
Zaur Ilgarovich
NAZAROV
05/01/1987
Rybinsk, Yaroslavl Region
Aleksey Viktorovich
Chichagov
Leninskiy District Court of Yaroslavl
15/10/2013
Yaroslavl Regional Court
16/10/2014
Convicted of psychotropic substance and drug trafficking (7 episodes)
Ms S.
51471/14
18/05/2014
Oleg Valeryevich KOVALENKO
12/08/1973
Slavyanovka, Kaliningrad Region
Sovetskiy Town Court
09/09/2013
Kaliningrad Regional Court
11/03/2014
Convicted of theft with the use of violence not endangering health, attempted theft with the use of violence not endangering health, theft
Ms Sh.
52996/14
23/08/2014
Yuriy Yuryevich
OVCHENKOV
12/09/1958
Dedenevo, Moscow Region
Oleg Olegovich
Anishchik
Presnenskiy District Court of Moscow
29/07/2013
Moscow City Court
24/02/2014
Convicted of attempted swindling by a group of persons on preliminary collusion on a large scale
Mr Ya.,
Mr K.
53388/14
04/02/2015
Ali Sultanovich EDILKHANOV
19/05/1973
Moscow
Roza Saidovna Magomedova
Kuntsevskiy District Court of Moscow
29/04/2014
Moscow City Court
18/12/2014
Convicted of willful infliction of grievous bodily harm endangering life and health
Mr D.Z.,
Mr K.Z.,
Mr A.,
Mr O.,
Mr I.,
Ms R.,
Mr S.
61461/14
23/08/2014
Vladimir Vladimirovich TOMILIN
18/10/1989
Plavsk, Tula Region
Aleksandr Sergeyevich Matveychik
Ostankinskiy District Court of Moscow
25/09/2015
Moscow City Court
28/04/2016
Convicted of preparation for drug trafficking on a large scale
Mr B.
61609/14
06/08/2014
Igor Nikolayevich
RYABOV
23/06/1974
Krylovskaya, Krasnodar Region
Taganskiy District Court of Moscow
31/10/2013
Moscow City Court
02/04/2014
Convicted of swindling by an organized group
(9 episodes)
Mr K.,
Mr S.,
Mr Zh.,
Mr E.,
Mr Kh.,
Mr K.
77048/14
03/12/2014
Oleg Uruzmagovich TSIBIROV
27/04/1983
Moscow
Tverskoy District Court of Moscow
17/03/2014
Supreme Court of the Russian Federation
23/12/2014
Convicted of attempted drug trafficking, attempted drug trafficking on large scale and unlawful storage of drugs on a large scale
Ms S.,
Ms Y.
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