European Court of Human Rights

 

 

 

THIRD SECTION

CASE OF FINOGENOV v. RUSSIA

(Application no. 2976/20)

 

 

 

 

 

 

JUDGMENT

 

 

 

 

STRASBOURG

15 December 2022

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

In the case of Finogenov v. Russia,

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

          Darian Pavli, President,
          Ioannis Ktistakis,
          Andreas Zünd, judges,
and Viktoriya Maradudina, Acting Deputy Section Registrar,

Having deliberated in private on 24 November 2022,

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

PROCEDURE

1.  The case originated in an application against Russia lodged with the Court under Article 34 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (“the Convention”) on 25 December 2019.

2.  The Russian Government (“the Government”) were given notice of the application.

THE FACTS

3.  The applicant’s details and information relevant to the application are set out in the appended table.

4.  The applicant complained of the inadequate conditions of detention under strict imprisonment regime. He also raised other complaints under the provisions of the Convention.

THE LAW

I.        ALLEGED VIOLATION OF ARTICLE 3 of the Convention

5.  The applicant complained principally of the inadequate conditions of detention under strict imprisonment regime. He relied on Article 3 of the Convention, which reads as follows:

“No one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”

6.  The Court reiterates that prolonged handcuffing of a prisoner which lacks sufficient justification can be regarded as degrading treatment (see Kashavelov v. Bulgaria, no. 891/05, §§ 38-40, 20 January 2011).

7.  In the leading case of N.T. v. Russia (no. 14727/11, §§ 53-56, 2 June 2020), the Court already found a violation in respect of the issue similar to the one under consideration in the present case. In N.T. the Court established that prolonged handcuffing of the applicant palpably exceeded the legitimate requirements of prison security diminishing his human dignity and causing him feelings of inferiority, anguish and accumulated distress that went far beyond the unavoidable suffering and humiliation inherent in a sentence of life imprisonment, and thus amounted to treatment proscribed by Article 3 of the Convention.

8.  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 on the admissibility and merits of this complaint. Having regard to its case-law on the subject, the Court considers that in the instant case the applicant has been subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment in contravention of Article 3 of the Convention.

9.  This complaint is therefore admissible and discloses a breach of this Convention provision.

II.     OTHER ALLEGED VIOLATIONS UNDER WELL-ESTABLISHED CASE-LAW

10.  The applicant submitted other complaints which also raised issues under the Convention, given the relevant well-established case-law of the Court (see the appended table). These complaints are not manifestly ill‑founded within the meaning of Article 35 § 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 Gorlov and Others v. Russia, nos. 27057/06 and 2 others, 2 July 2019, concerning permanent video surveillance in detention facilities and the lack of an effective remedy in that respect.

III.  REMAINING COMPLAINTS

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

12.  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 either do not meet the admissibility criteria set out in Articles 34 and 35 of the Convention or do not disclose any appearance of a violation of the rights and freedoms enshrined in the Convention or the Protocols thereto.

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

IV.  APPLICATION OF ARTICLE 41 OF THE CONVENTION

13.  Article 41 of the Convention provides:

“If 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.”

14.  Regard being had to the documents in its possession and to its case‑law (see, in particular, N.T., cited above, § 61), the Court considers it reasonable to award the sum indicated in the appended table.

15.  The Court further considers it appropriate that the default interest rate should be based on the marginal lending rate of the European Central Bank, to which should be added three percentage points.

FOR THESE REASONS, THE COURT, UNANIMOUSLY,

1.      Declares the complaints concerning the prolonged handcuffing and the other complaints under well-established case-law of the Court, as set out in the appended table, admissible, and the remainder of the application inadmissible;

2.      Holds that these complaints disclose a breach of Article 3 of the Convention concerning the inadequate conditions of detention under strict imprisonment regime;

3.      Holds that there has been a violation of the Convention as regards the other complaints raised under well-established case-law of the Court (see the appended table);

4.      Holds

(a)  that the respondent State is to pay the applicant, within three months, the amount indicated in the appended table, to be converted into the currency of the respondent State;

(b)  that from the expiry of the above-mentioned three months until settlement simple interest shall be payable on the above amount 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 15 December 2022, pursuant to Rule 77 §§ 2 and 3 of the Rules of Court.

                       

      Viktoriya Maradudina                                                Darian Pavli

    Acting Deputy Registrar                                                President

APPENDIX

Application raising complaints under Article 3 of the Convention

(inadequate conditions of detention under strict imprisonment regime)

Application no. Date of introduction	Applicant’s name Year of birth	Facility	Start and end date of detention under strict regime	Other complaints under well‑established case-law	Amount awarded for pecuniary and non‑pecuniary damage and costs and expenses (in euros) [1]
2976/20 25/12/2019	Yevgeniy Vladimirovich FINOGENOV 1969	IK-6 Orenburg Region	29/01/2001 - 10/07/2019	Art. 13 - lack of any effective remedy in domestic law in respect of permanent video surveillance in detention facilities   Art. 8 (1) - permanent video surveillance of detainees in pre‑trial or post-conviction detention facilities - IK-6 Orenburg Region, 29/01/2001 - 10/07/2019, IK-6 Khabarovsk Region, 09/08/2019 - pending, opposite-sex operators, video surveillance in a lavatory and/or shower room.	3,000