Strasbourg billed Russia for hematomas and fractures

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ordered the Russian authorities to pay more than €487,000 to Russian citizens who suffered from the actions of law enforcement agencies. Strasbourg found that during the 2018-2021 protests in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Chelyabinsk and other cities, law enforcement officers used “unreasonable violence” against the applicants. At the same time, the court concluded, the Russian authorities did not conduct a proper investigation and did not bring to justice those responsible for exceeding the powers of law enforcement officers.

In total, 33 Russians appealed to the ECHR with a complaint about the impunity of the security forces who used violence against them. The applicants spoke about incidents that happened to them at rallies in support of Alexei Navalny, the LGBT community and other unauthorized opposition events. So, a policeman hit Daria Sosnovskaya in the stomach at a protest rally in Moscow on August 10, 2019. This episode, we recall, was filmed and caused a great public outcry.

The interests of Ms. Sosnovskaya and 15 other applicants were represented in court by Travmpunkt (a lawyer association established in the spring of 2023). There, “Kommersant” was told that the basis for applying to the ECHR in the case of Daria Sosnovskaya was the refusal to initiate a criminal case. “The Investigative Committee refused to conduct a check on the complaint and initiate a criminal case and sent the complaint to the Russian Guard for an internal check. The National Guard forwarded a statement to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, where they stated that the employee used force against Daria in order to “prevent illegal actions on her part,” the Trauma Center explained.

The text of the decision of the ECtHR notes that all the applicants received harm to health of varying severity – from hematomas to fractures of the limbs.

Medical reports testify to the injuries received. The victims appealed to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Investigative Committee and the courts, but, according to the ECHR, none of the security forces who used violence against them was brought to justice. In Strasbourg, they concluded that the Russian authorities had violated the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms: “The refusal of the authorities to conduct a full criminal investigation into allegations of ill-treatment is a sign that the state has not fulfilled its procedural obligation under Article 3 of the Convention (“No one shall be subjected to torture, or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”— “b”). This is all the more true in cases where the authorities have officially refused to investigate the applicants’ statements or to register the applicants’ complaints”.

Travmpunkt’s lawyer Leonid Solovyov, who represented the interests of journalist Fyodor Khudokormov in the case (on the instructions of All Rus News, he prepared a report on a spontaneous rally on February 2, 2021, which was supposed to take place on Manezhnaya Square in Moscow, and, according to him, was hit on the head with a rubber truncheon), said that the Russian authorities were notified of his applicant’s complaint. However, Strasbourg did not receive the response required by the regulations: “The complaint was accepted for consideration in November 2022. Russia was notified of this complaint, but there was no response from the authorities. The authorities notified the ECtHR that they no longer conduct correspondence in connection with the withdrawal from the jurisdiction of the court.” Recall that on March 15, 2022, Russia announced its withdrawal from the Council of Europe, and on March 16 it was expelled from it. On September 16, Russia finally ceased to be a party to the European Convention on Human Rights, and earlier refused to comply with the decisions of the ECtHR.

Mr. Solovyov noted that now in Russia there are no mechanisms for the implementation of the decision adopted by the ECtHR: “The only thing is that it is subject to execution indefinitely.”

Emilia Gabdullina