THIRD SECTION

DECISION

Application no. 11327/10 Aleksandr Fedorovich TARAN

against Russia

The European Court of Human Rights (Third Section), sitting on 10 March 2022 as a Committee composed of:

Peeter Roosma, President, Andreas Zünd, Mikhail Lobov, judges,

and Viktoriya Maradudina, Acting Deputy Section Registrar,

Having regard to the above application lodged on 19 February 2010,

Having regard to the observations submitted by the respondent Government and the observations in reply submitted by the applicants,

Having deliberated, decides as follows:

FACTS AND PROCEDURE

The applicant’s details are set out in the appended table. He was represented by Mr V. Savin, a lawyer practising in Stavropol.

The applicant’s complaints under Article 5 § 3 of the Convention concerning the excessive length of pre-trial detention were communicated to the Russian Government (“the Government”). Complaints based on the same facts were also communicated under other provisions of the Convention.

THE LAW

The applicant complained that there had been no sufficient reasons for his remand in custody on 20 October 2009 and ensuing detention which ended on 9 December 2009. He relied on Article 5 § 3 of the Convention, which read as follows:

Article 5 § 3

“3. Everyone arrested or detained in accordance with the provisions of paragraph 1 (c) of this Article shall be ... entitled to trial within a reasonable time or to release pending trial. Release may be conditioned by guarantees to appear for trial.”

The Court observes that the general principles regarding the right to trial within a reasonable time or to release pending trial, as guaranteed by Article 5 § 3 of the Convention, have been stated in a number of its previous judgments (see, among many other authorities, Kudła v. Poland [GC], no. 30210/96, § 110, ECHR 2000-XI, and McKay v. the United Kingdom [GC], no. 543/03, §§ 41-44, ECHR 2006-X, with further references).

In the present application, having examined all the material before it, the Court considers that for the reasons stated below, the applicant’s complaint about the unreasonable length of his pre-trial detention is inadmissible.

The Court notes that, when deciding on the applicant’s remand in custody pending trial, the domestic courts relied on the existence of a reasonable suspicion of his involvement in the aggravated and violent crimes, the vulnerability of the victims and the existence of a serious risk of his absconding or interfering with justice. While the Court does not lose sight that the domestic courts referred to the seriousness of the charges against the applicant to substantiate their decision to remand him in custody, it accepts, in the particular circumstances of the case in which the applicant stood trial charged with three counts of murder, that the suspicion that the applicant had committed those offences has justified his pre-trial detention and that it constituted a “relevant and sufficient” ground for his being held in custody pending trial which lasted approximately a month and 19 days (compare with Jėčius v. Lithuania , no. 34578/97, § 94, ECHR 2000 ‑ IX).

In view of the above, the Court finds that the applicant’s complaint is manifestly ill-founded and must be rejected in accordance with Article 35 §§ 3 and 4 of the Convention.

The applicant also raised other complaints under various articles of the Convention.

The Court has examined the application and considers that, in the light of all the material in its possession and in so far as the matters complained of are within its competence, these complaints do not meet the admissibility criteria set out in Article 35 of the Convention.

It follows that this part of the application must be rejected in accordance with Article 35 §§ 1 and 4 of the Convention.

For these reasons, the Court, unanimously,

Declares the application inadmissible.

Done in English and notified in writing on 31 March 2022.

Viktoriya Maradudina Peeter Roosma Acting Deputy Registrar President

APPENDIX

Application raising complaints under Article 5 § 3 of the Convention

(excessive length of pre-trial detention)

Application no.

Date of introduction

Applicant’s name

Year of birth

Representative’s name and location

Period of detention

Court which issued detention order / examined appeal

Length of detention

Specific defects

11327/10

19/02/2010

Aleksandr Fedorovich TARAN

1951Savin Vyacheslav Vasilyevich

Stavropol

20/10/2009 to

09/12/2009

Stavropol Regional Court, Supreme Court of Russia

1 month(s) and

20 day(s)

failure to examine the possibility of applying other measures of restraint