THIRD SECTION
DECISION
Application no. 45414/09
Aleksandr Sergeyevich IVAKIN against Russia
and 14 other applications
(see list appended)
The European Court of Human Rights (Third Section), sitting on 25 September 2018 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 Shcherbatykh who is Ukranian, 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 2008 and 2010 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, and/or the death of the witnesses before the trial.
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.
THE LAW
10. 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.
11. 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.
12. Certain applicants disagreed, while the others did not provide specific arguments.
13. 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, 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 18 October 2018.
Fatoş AracıAlena Poláčková
Deputy 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
Witness absent from trial
45414/09
29/07/2008
Aleksandr Sergeyevich IVAKIN
10/09/1971
Rostov-na-Donu
Novocherkasskiy Town Court of the Rostov Region
05/12/2008
Rostov Regional Court
22/04/2009
Convicted of two counts of attempted drug dealing and maintenance of the den of drug addicts
Mr D.
47156/09
03/06/2009
Yevgeniy Aleksandrovich SHELOKHVOSTOV
19/09/1982
Valuyki
Tushinskiy District Court of Moscow
15/10/2008
Moscow City Court
25/12/2008
Convicted of attempted drug dealing
Mrs M.
47660/09
03/08/2009
Ramiz Mamed Ogly ALLAKHVERDIYEV
29/10/1966
Kopeysk
Tsentralnuy District Court of Chelyabinsk
16/12/2008
Chelyabinsk Regional Court
25/02/2009
Convicted of attempted drug dealing in conspiracy
Mr K.
52016/09
07/09/2009
Oleg Grigoryevich KOBLOV
22/05/1970
Ryazan
Olga Mikhaylovna ZHAROVA
Yegoryevskiy Town Court
16/02/2009
Moscow Regional Court
09/04/2009
Convicted of murder
Mr M. N., Mr M. Sh.
54261/09
14/09/2009
Gennadiy Vyacheslavovich BUSHUYEV
19/06/1971
Tver
Mikhail Nikolayevich STEPANOV
Simonovskiy District Court of Moscow
29/05/2009
Moscow City Court
27/07/2009
Convicted of murder
Mrs I.
18116/10
23/02/2010
Vitaliy Vadimovich GAPONENKO
01/10/1987
Surovikino
Volzhskiy Court of the Volgograd Region
19/05/2010
Volgograd Regional Court
10/08/2010
Convicted of robbery
Mr B.
25381/10
29/04/2010
Maksim Sergeyevich URUSOV
17/08/1988
Amursk
Eduard Valentinovich MARKOV
Amurskiy Town Court of the Khabarovsk Region
25/06/2009
Khabarovsk Regional Court
29/10/2009
Convicted of infliction of grievous bodily injuries that led to the victim’s death
Mr T.,
Mr S.
32565/10
06/08/2010
Igor Gennadyevich TOKAREV
07/05/1975
Safonovo
Mikhail Ivanovich TREPASHKIN
Nikulinskiy District Court of Moscow
25/11/2009
Moscow City Court
15/02/2010
Convicted of attempted fraud
Mr P.,
Mr G.,
Mr Kr.,
Mr T.,
Mr Kosh., Mr S.
32610/10
21/07/2010
Andrey Vladimirovich KRUCHININ
14/03/1984
Murmansk
Oksana Vladimirovna PREOBRAZHENSKAYA
Murmansk Regional Court
06/11/2009
Supreme Court of the Russian Federation
10/02/2010
Convicted of several counts of extortion and other crimes in conspiracy
Mr S.
35788/10
26/05/2010
Sergey Vladimirovich GRYAZNOV
07/11/1959
Khabarovsk
Tsentralnyy District Court of Khabarovsk
18/08/2009
Khabarovsk Regional Court
26/11/2009
Convicted of illegal entrepreneurial activity, money-laundering, making of counterfeit securities in conspiracy
Mr Z.,
Mr T.,
Mr G.
52220/10
17/08/2010
Maksim Aleksandrovich ABDULLIN
31/01/1983
Ufa
Oktyabrskiy District Court of the Republic of Bashkortostan
01/07/2010
Supreme Court of the Republic of Bashkortostan
19/10/2010
Convicted of attempted drug dealing and unlawful storage of drugs without the intention of their sale
Mrs S.
53385/10
28/07/2010
Aleksey Anatolyevich USHANOV
15/10/1989
Sterlitamak
Andrey Anatolyevich USHANOV
Orenburg Regional Court
15/10/2009
Supreme Court of the Russian Federation
04/02/2010
Convicted of infliction of grievous bodily injuries that led to the victim’s death in conspiracy
Mr Ch.,
Mr D.
56603/10
07/09/2010
Vladimir Alekseyevich SHCHERBATYKH
09/10/1978
Moscow
Mikhail Ivanovich TREPASHKIN
Noginskiy Town Court of the Moscow Region
17/02/2010
Moscow Regional Court
06/04/2010
Convicted of murder
Mr Ch.
56845/10
10/09/2010
Andrey Alekseyevich YEGOROV
24/09/1968
Volgograd
Yelena Aleksandrovna BALAKIR
Voroshilovskiy District Court of Volgograd
29/04/2010
Volgograd Regional Court
16/08/2010
Convicted of aggravated assault and extortion in conspiracy
Mr S.,
Mrs S.,
Mr T.
58853/10
07/09/2010
Valeriy Vladimirovich BELANOV
12/11/1960
Moscow
Mikhail Ivanovich TREPASHKIN
Dorogomilovskiy District Court of Moscow
21/06/2010
Moscow City Court
23/08/2010
Convicted of fraud
Mr Ch.,
Mr Chur., Mrs I., Mrs R.
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