Communicated on 16 May 2018

FOURTH SECTION

Application no. 34345/10 Mikhail Igorevich BELYAEV against Ukraine and 2 other applications (see list appended)

STATEMENT OF FACTS

The applicants, Mr Mikhail Igorevich Belyaev (application no. 34345/10), Mr Ivan Ivanovych Karpenko (application no. 50687/10) and Mr Rustam Zakirovich Farziyev (application no. 70492/13), are Ukrainian nationals who were born in 1981, 1973 and 1984, respectively. Since 2004 they have been serving life sentences in correctional colonies in Ukraine.

The facts of the cases, as submitted by the applicants, may be summarised as follows.

On 11 July 2003 the Ukrainian parliament adopted the 2003 Code on the Execution of Sentences of Ukraine (“the Code”). Article 150 of the Code (“Place of serving life imprisonment”) provided that life prisoners (irrespective of their gender) were to serve their sentences in correctional colonies of the maximum security level. Article 151 (“Procedure for, and conditions of, the execution and serving of life sentences”) further provided, inter alia , that life prisoners were entitled to one short visit every six months. At the same time, Article 18 § 2 (3) (“Correctional colonies”) provided that female life prisoners were to serve their sentences in colonies of the medium security level. In turn, Article 139 (“Correctional colonies of the medium security level”) provided that prisoners serving their sentences in such colonies were entitled, inter alia , to have one short visit every month and one long visit every three months.

On 21 January 2010 the Code was amended. Article 150 now stated that persons sentenced to life imprisonment were to serve their sentences as follows: male prisoners – in maximum-security sectors of correctional colonies of the medium security level and in correctional colonies of the maximum security level; and female prisoners – in medium-security sectors of correctional colonies of the minimum security level with general conditions of detention and in correctional colonies of the medium security level. Article 151 now stated that life prisoners were entitled to one short visit every three months. A newly introduced Article 151 ² (“Specifics regarding the serving of sentences by female life prisoners”) provided that female life prisoners were to be placed, as a rule, in medium-security sectors of colonies of the minimum security level with general conditions of detention. It also provided that female life prisoners were to be subject to the regime prescribed for prisoners held in colonies of the medium security level (that is, the regime provided for in Article 139 of the Code).

On 8 April 2014 the Code was amended again. Article 151 was amended to entitle all life prisoners to one short visit every month and one long visit every three months from their close relatives. The 2014 amendments thus put male and female life prisoners on an equal footing in respect of visits-related rights.

COMPLAINT

The applicants complain under Article 14 of the Convention, taken in conjunction with Article 8 of the Convention, about discrimination due to different visits-related rights which were envisaged by the Code for male and female life prisoners. One of the applicants (application no. 34345/10) also refers in this respect to Article 1 of Protocol No. 12.

QUESTIONS TO THE PARTIES

Have the applicants suffered discrimination, contrary to Article 14 of the Convention, taken in conjunction with Article 8 of the Convention? In particular, have they been subjected to a difference in treatment based on sex, in view of the provisions of the 2003 Code on the Execution of Sentences of Ukraine, which envisaged different visits-related rights for male and female life prisoners? If so, did that difference in treatment pursue a legitimate aim, and did it have a reasonable justification?

APPENDIX

List of the applications

No.

Application no.

Lodged on

Applicant

Date of birth

Place of residence

34345/10

03/03/2010

Mikhail Igorevich BELYAEV

09/01/1981

Konotop

50687/10

16/08/2010

Ivan Ivanovych KARPENKO

26/09/1973

Perekhrestivka

70492/13

28/10/2013

Rustam Zakirovich FARZIYEV

09/08/1984

Chernigiv