Published on 25 April 2022

SECOND SECTION

Application no. 12191/20 Alexandr GOSUDAREV against the Republic of Moldova lodged on 2 March 2020 communicated on 6 April 2022

SUBJECT MATTER OF THE CASE

The application concerns the applicant’s deprivation of liberty pending trial allegedly in the absence of a reasonable suspicion that he had committed an offence. The applicant’s business was trading with crypto currency. At one point he purchased bitcoins from a person who later turned out to be a drug dealer selling drugs over internet for bitcoins. The applicant was accused of being a member of the drug dealer’s criminal gang and placed under house arrest.

The applicant complains under Article 5 § 1 of the Convention that there was no reasonable suspicion that he was a member of the drug dealer’s criminal gang.

QUESTION TO THE PARTIES

Was the applicant deprived of his liberty in breach of Article 5 § 1 of the Convention? In particular, was the applicant’s house arrest based on a reasonable suspicion that he had committed an offence (see Muşuc v. Moldova , no. 42440/06, §§ 29-34, 6 November 2007)?