Lexploria

FIFTH SECTION

CASE OF ZHILINA AND OTHERS v. RUSSIA

(Applications nos. 10524/20 and 19 others â€“

see appended list)

JUDGMENT

STRASBOURG

20 April 2023

This judgment is final but it may be subject to editorial revision.

In the case of Zhilina and Others v. Russia,

The European Court of Human Rights (Fifth Section), sitting as a Committee composed of:

MarÃa ElÃ³segui , President , Mattias Guyomar, KateÅ™ina Å imÃ¡ÄkovÃ¡ , judges ,

and Viktoriya Maradudina, Acting Deputy Section Registrar,

Having deliberated in private on 30 March 2023,

Delivers the following judgment, which was adopted on that date:

PROCEDURE

1. The case originated in applications against Russia lodged with the Court under Article 34 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (â€œthe Conventionâ€) on the various dates indicated in the appended table.

2. The Russian Government (â€œthe Governmentâ€) were given notice of the applications.

THE FACTS

3. The list of applicants and the relevant details of the applications are set out in the appended table.

4. The applicants complained of the disproportionate measures taken against them as organisers or participants of public assemblies, namely, manifestations for fair elections to Mosgorduma. They also raised other complaints under the provisions of the Convention.

THE LAW

5. Having regard to the similar subject matter of the applications, the Court finds it appropriate to examine them jointly in a single judgment.

6. The Court observes that the facts giving rise to the alleged violations of the Convention occurred prior to 16 September 2022, the date on which the Russian Federation ceased to be a party to the Convention. The Court therefore decides that it has jurisdiction to examine the present applications (see Fedotova and Others v. Russia [GC], nos. 40792/10 and 2 others, Â§Â§ 68-73, 17 January 2023).

7. The applicants complained principally of disproportionate measures taken against them as organisers or participants of public assemblies, namely the dispersal of these assemblies, as well as their arrest followed by their conviction for administrative offence. They relied, expressly or in substance, on Article 11 of the Convention.

8. The Court refers to the principles established in its case-law regarding freedom of assembly (see KudreviÄius and Others v. Lithuania [GC], no. 37553/05, ECHR 2015, with further references) and proportionality of interference with it (see Oya Ataman v. Turkey , no. 74552/01, ECHR 2006 â€‘ XIV, and Hyde Park and Others v. Moldova , no. 33482/06, 31 March 2009).

9. In the leading cases of Frumkin v. Russia, no. 74568/12, ECHR 2016 (extracts), Navalnyy and Yashin v. Russia, no. 76204/11, 4 December 2014 and Kasparov and Others v. Russia, no. 21613/07, 3 October 2013, the Court already found a violation in respect of issues similar to those in the present case.

10. Having examined all the material submitted to it, the Court has not found any fact or argument capable of persuading it to reach a different conclusion as to the admissibility and merits of these complaints. Having regard to its case-law on the subject, the Court considers that in the instant case the interferences with the applicantsâ€™ freedom of assembly were not â€œnecessary in a democratic societyâ€.

11. These complaints are therefore admissible and disclose a breach of Article 11 of the Convention.

12. The applicants submitted other complaints which also raised issues under the Convention, given the relevant well-established case-law of the Court (see appended table). These complaints are not manifestly ill-founded within the meaning of Article 35 Â§ 3 (a) of the Convention, nor are they inadmissible on any other ground. Accordingly, they must be declared admissible. Having examined all the material before it, the Court concludes that they also disclose violations of the Convention in the light of its findings in its well-established case-law (see Butkevich v. Russia , no. 5865/07, Â§Â§ 63 â€‘ 65, 13 February 2018, Tsvetkova and Others v. Russia , nos. 54381/08 and 5 others, Â§Â§ 121-23, 10 April 2018, Kalyapin v. Russia , no. 6095/09, Â§ 76, 23 July 2019, and Korneyeva v. Russia , no. 72051/17, Â§Â§ 34-36, 8 October 2019, concerning various aspects of unlawful deprivation of liberty of organisers or participants of public events; and Karelin v. Russia , no. 926/08, 20 September 2016, related to the examination of criminal cases in the absence of a prosecuting party in the judicial proceedings governed by the Federal Code of Administrative Offences (CAO)).

13. In view of the above findings, the Court considers that there is no need to deal separately with the applicantsâ€™ complaints under Article 6 of the Convention concerning other aspects of the fairness of the administrative offence proceedings and alleged restrictions on the right to examine witnesses.

14. Article 41 of the Convention provides:

â€œIf the Court finds that there has been a violation of the Convention or the Protocols thereto, and if the internal law of the High Contracting Party concerned allows only partial reparation to be made, the Court shall, if necessary, afford just satisfaction to the injured party.â€

15. Regard being had to the documents in its possession and to its case-law (see, in particular, Navalnyy and Others v. Russia [Committee], nos. 25809/17 and 14 others, Â§ 22, 4 October 2022), the Court finds it reasonable to award the sums indicated in the appended table.

FOR THESE REASONS, THE COURT, UNANIMOUSLY,

(a) that the respondent State is to pay the applicants, within three months, the amounts indicated in the appended table, to be converted into the currency of the respondent State at the rate applicable at the date of settlement;

(b) that from the expiry of the above-mentioned three months until settlement simple interest shall be payable on the above amounts at a rate equal to the marginal lending rate of the European Central Bank during the default period plus three percentage points.

Done in English, and notified in writing on 20 April 2023, pursuant to Rule 77 Â§Â§ 2 and 3 of the Rules of Court.

Viktoriya Maradudina MarÃa ElÃ³segui

Acting Deputy Registrar President

APPENDIX

List of applications raising complaints under Article 11 of the Convention

(disproportionate measures against organisers and participants of public assemblies)

No.

Application no.

Date of introduction

Applicantâ€™s name

Year of birth

Representativeâ€™s name and location

Name of the public event

Location

Date

Administrative charges

Penalty

Final domestic decision

Court Name

Date

Other complaints under well â€‘ established case-law

Amount awarded for pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage and costs and expenses per applicant

(in euros) [1]

10524/20

11/02/2020

Yekaterina Vladimirovna ZHILINA

1981Sergeyeva Irina Vadimovna

Moscow

Manifestation for fair elections to Mosgorduma

Moscow

27/07/2019

Article 20.2 Â§ 5 of CAO

fine of

RUB 10,000

Moscow City Court

10/09/2019

Art. 5 (1) - unlawful deprivation of liberty - arrest and escorting to the police office on 27/07/2019 for the purpose of drawing up a record of administrative offence; detention in excess of 3 hours;

Art. 6 (1) - lack of impartiality of tribunal - absence of a prosecuting party in the administrative offence proceedings.

4,000

10959/20

16/02/2020

Dmitriy Yuryevich CHERNYAVSKIY

1989Eysmont Mariya Olegovna

Moscow

Manifestation for fair elections to Mosgorduma

Moscow

27/07/2019

Article 20.2 Â§ 6 of CAO

fine of

RUB 15,000

Moscow City Court

26/08/2019

Art. 5 (1) - unlawful deprivation of liberty - unlawful detention from 27/07/2019 till 29/07/2019 for the sole purpose of compiling a record of administrative offence; detention in excess of 3 hours;

Art. 6 (1) - lack of impartiality of tribunal - lack of the prosecuting party in the administrative offence proceedings.

4,000

11439/20

15/02/2020

Viktor Igorevich ARTAMONOV

1997Markin Konstantin Aleksandrovich

Velikiy Novgorod

Manifestation for fair elections to Mosgorduma

Moscow

27/07/2019

Article 20.2 Â§ 6.1 of CAO

fine of

RUB 20,000

Moscow City Court

16/08/2019

Art. 6 (1) - lack of impartiality of tribunal - absence of a prosecuting party in the administrative offence proceedings;

Art. 5 (1) - unlawful deprivation of liberty - arrest and escorting to the police office on 27/07/2019 for the purpose of drawing up a record of administrative offence; detention in excess of 3 hours until 29/07/2019; belated drawing up of the record of administrative arrest (raised on appeal).

4,000

12380/20

28/02/2020

Mikhail Alekseyevich FAYTO

1990Vanslova Yekaterina

Nizhniy Novgorod

Manifestation for fair elections to Mosgorduma

Moscow

27/07/2019

Article 20.2 Â§ 5 of CAO

fine of

RUB 15,000

Moscow City Court

30/08/2019

Art. 5 (1) - unlawful deprivation of liberty - arrest and detention on 27/07/2019 in excess of 3 hours for the sole purpose of drawing up a record of administrative offence;

Art. 6 (1) - lack of impartiality of tribunal - absence of a prosecuting party in the administrative offence proceedings.

4,000

12745/20

22/02/2020

Artem Viktorovich ABRAMOV

1988Dubinin Nikolay Anatolyevich

Moscow

Manifestation for fair elections to Mosgorduma

Moscow

27/07/2019

Article 20.2 Â§ 6

of CAO

fine of

RUB 20,000

Moscow City Court

24/09/2019

Art. 5 (1) - unlawful deprivation of liberty - lack of legal grounds for arrest and escorting to the police station on 27/07/2019; no examination of the possibility of drawing up a record of offence on the spot.

4,000

12996/20

26/02/2020

Aleksandr Yevgenyevich SOLUKOV

1993Vasilyev Nikolay Vladimirovich

Moscow

Manifestation for fair elections to Mosgorduma

Moscow

27/07/2019

Article 20.2 Â§ 5 of CAO

fine of

RUB 10,000

Moscow City Court

26/08/2019

Art. 6 (1) - lack of impartiality of tribunal - absence of a prosecuting party in the administrative offence proceedings.

3,500

13011/20

26/02/2020

Pavel Aleksandrovich DMITRIYENKO

1987Vasilyev Nikolay Vladimirovich

Moscow

Manifestation for fair elections to Mosgorduma

Moscow

27/07/2019

Article 20.2 Â§ 5

of CAO

fine of

RUB 10,000

Moscow City Court

26/08/2019

Art. 6 (1) - lack of impartiality of tribunal - lack of prosecuting party in the administrative offence proceedings.

3,500

13677/20

02/03/2020

Igor Aleksandrovich RATKE

1987Antokhin Yevgeniy Vyacheslavovich

Moscow

Manifestation for fair elections to Mosgorduma

Moscow

27/07/2019

Article 20.2 Â§ 5

of CAO

fine of

RUB 15,000

Moscow City Court

06/09/2019

Art. 6 (1) - lack of impartiality of tribunal - absence of a prosecuting party in the administrative offence proceedings;

Art. 5 (1) - unlawful deprivation of liberty - arrest and escorting to the police office on 27/07/2019 for the purpose of drawing up a record of administrative offence; detention in excess of 3 hours.

4,000

13953/20

27/02/2020

Semen Davydovich LOBANOV

1983Vasilyev Nikolay Vladimirovich

Moscow

Manifestation for fair elections to Mosgorduma

Moscow

27/07/2019

Article 20.2 Â§ 5

of CAO

fine of

RUB 15,000

Moscow City Court

28/08/2019

Art. 6 (1) - lack of impartiality of tribunal - absence of a prosecuting party in the administrative proceedings.

3,500

13957/20

27/02/2020

Aleksandr Sergeyevich KUKHTINOV

1994Vasilyev Nikolay Vladimirovich

Moscow

Manifestation for fair elections to Mosgorduma

Moscow

27/07/2019

Article 20.2 Â§ 5 of CAO

fine of

RUB 15,000

Moscow City Court

28/08/2019

Art. 6 (1) - lack of impartiality of tribunal - absence of a prosecuting party in the administrative proceedings.

3,500

14314/20

03/03/2020

Daniil Viktorovich GORBATOV

1998Manifestation for fair elections to Mosgorduma

Moscow

27/07/2019

Article 20.2 Â§ 5 of CAO

fine of

RUB 10,000

Moscow City Court

04/09/2019

Art. 5 (1) - unlawful deprivation of liberty - arrest on 27/07/2017 and detention in excess of 3 hours for the purpose of drawing up a record of administrative offence;

Art. 6 (1) - lack of impartiality of tribunal - absence of a prosecuting party in the administrative offence proceedings.

4,000

14361/20

28/02/2020

Anna Nikolayevna PAVLOVA

1986Vasilyev Nikolay Vladimirovich

Moscow

Manifestation for fair elections to Mosgorduma

Moscow

27/07/2019

Article 20.2 Â§ 5 of CAO

fine of

RUB 15,000

Moscow City Court

30/08/2019

Art. 6 (1) - lack of impartiality of tribunal - absence of a prosecuting party in the administrative offence proceedings.

3,500

14362/20

28/02/2020

Artem Vladimirovich TOLSTOV

1992Vasilyev Nikolay Vladimirovich

Moscow

Manifestation for fair elections to Mosgorduma

Moscow

27/07/2019

Article 20.2 Â§ 5 of CAO

fine of

RUB 15,000

Moscow City Court

28/08/2019

Art. 6 (1) - lack of impartiality of tribunal - absence of a prosecuting party in the administrative offence proceedings.

3,500

14722/20

06/03/2020

Yevgeniy Mikhaylovich SUNTSOV

1986Gilmanov Mansur Idrisovich

Podolsk

Manifestation for fair elections to Mosgorduma

Moscow

27/07/2019

Article 20.2 Â§ 6.1 of CAO

fine of

RUB 10,000

Moscow City Court

24/09/2019

Art. 5 (1) - unlawful deprivation of liberty - arrest and detention on 27/07/2019 in excess of 3 hours for the sole purpose of drawing up a record of administrative offence;

Art. 6 (1) - lack of impartiality of tribunal - absence of a prosecuting party in the administrative offence proceedings.

4,000

14799/20

03/03/2020

Yelizaveta Borisovna ALEKSANDROVA-ZORINA

1984Vasilyev Nikolay Vladimirovich

Moscow

Manifestation for fair elections to Mosgorduma

Moscow

27/07/2019

Article 20.2 Â§ 5 of CAO

fine of

RUB 20,000

Moscow City Court

14/10/2019

Art. 6 (1) - lack of impartiality of tribunal - absence of a prosecuting party in the administrative offence proceedings.

3,500

16637/20

10/03/2020

Mikhail Sergeyevich LYASIN

1993Manifestation for fair elections to Mosgorduma

Moscow

27/07/2019

Article 20.2 Â§ 6.1 of CAO

fine of

RUB 20,000

Moscow City Court

10/09/2019

Art. 5 (1) - unlawful deprivation of liberty - unlawful (unjustified) arrest on 27-29 July 2019 for the sole purpose of drawing up a record of administrative offence; detention in excess of 3 hours;

Art. 6 (1) - lack of impartiality of tribunal - absence of a prosecuting party in the administrative offence proceedings.

4,000

18728/20

09/04/2020

Sergey Viktorovich MELNIKOV

1988Markin Konstantin Aleksandrovich

Velikiy Novgorod

Manifestation for fair elections to Mosgorduma

Moscow

27/07/2019

Article 20.2 Â§ 6.1 of CAO

fine of

RUB 15,000

Moscow City Court

10/10/2019

Art. 5 (1) - unlawful deprivation of liberty - arrest and escorting to the police office on 27/07/2019 for the purpose of drawing up a record of administrative offence; detention in excess of 3 hours;

Art. 6 (1) - lack of impartiality of tribunal - absence of a prosecuting party in the administrative offence proceedings.

4,000

19378/20

23/03/2020

Marina Anatolyevna KEN

1975Chervonnyy Grigoriy Sergeyevich

Moscow

Manifestation for fair elections to Mosgorduma

Moscow

27/07/2019

Article 20.2 Â§ 6.1 of CAO

fine of

RUB 15,000

Moscow City Court

24/09/2019

Art. 5 (1) - unlawful deprivation of liberty - arrest and escorting to the police office on 27/07/2019 for the purpose of drawing up a record of administrative offence; detention in excess of 3 hours (until 29/07/2017);

Art. 6 (1) - lack of impartiality of tribunal - absence of a prosecuting party in the administrative offence proceedings

4,000

19850/20

10/03/2020

Ruslan Agilevich ASHEVSKIY

1997Markin Konstantin Aleksandrovich

Velikiy Novgorod

Manifestation for fair elections to Mosgorduma

Moscow

27/07/2019

Article 20.2 Â§ 5 of CAO

fine of

RUB 17,000

Moscow City Court

12/09/2019

Art. 5 (1) - unlawful deprivation of liberty - arrest and escorting to the police office on 27/07/2019 for the purpose of drawing up a record of administrative offence; detention in excess of 3 hours;

Art. 6 (1) - lack of impartiality of tribunal - absence of a prosecuting party in the administrative offence proceedings.

4,000

19899/20

20/03/2020

Nikolay Vasilyevich KOZIN

1978Mikhaylichenko Kseniya Alekseyevna

Moscow

Manifestation for fair elections to Mosgorduma

Moscow

27/07/2019

Article 20.2 Â§ 5 of CAO

fine of

RUB 15,000

Moscow City Court

30/09/2019

Art. 5 (1) - unlawful deprivation of liberty - arrest and escorting to the police office on 27/07/2019 for the purpose of drawing up a record of administrative offence; detention in excess of 3 hours

(until 29/07/2017).

4,000

[1] Plus any tax that may be chargeable to the applicants.

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CASE OF ZHILINA AND OTHERS v. RUSSIA

CASE OF ZHILINA AND OTHERS v. RUSSIA

LEXI