The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) awarded compensation to participants in Moscow protests in support of Alexei Navalny in 2021. The corresponding decisions were published on the court’s website.
Russia was ordered to pay 16 thousand euros to the participants of the “Freedom for Navalny” rally on January 23 — then, according to OVD Info estimates, 4 thousand people were detained throughout Russia, of which — more than 1.5 thousand in Moscow. The ECHR awarded 16 thousand euros each to Stanislav Milyakov and Maria Isaeva, whom Moscow police officers beat with batons during their arrest that day.
16 thousand euros were also awarded to the injured participants of the rally in support of the oppositionist on January 31, Denis Pakhanov and Timofey Sokolov, who was 17 years old at the time of the arrest, as well as to the photographer Ivan Kleimenov, who photographed the arrests from the balcony. Several security forces ran up to the photographer and beat him, then a report was drawn up against the correspondent for violating the rules of the rally. Kleimenov, who was injured, was kept in the police department for 19 hours without communication, he was not given food or water.
The same compensation was awarded to the former SMM editor of Navalny’s Moscow headquarters, Alexander Shepelev, to whose home on April 21, 2021 security forces came and “struck him in the groin and ribs, and also stepped on his head when he fell to the floor.”
“He stood and cackled: “Well, Sasha, tell them the password, and this will stop.” An employee of Navalny's headquarters was beaten during the search, and then hidden in the police department
As Shepelev himself recalled, they threw a dog bed over his head, and kicked him several times through it. The security forces threatened to break his fingers and “insert some object into his anus.” Investigative actions took place in a “sanitary case” in which Shepelev was listed as a witness. Doctors recorded subcutaneous hemorrhages on his eyebrow, shoulder, shoulder blades and chest, bruises of the soft tissues of the chest and thigh.
As a result, Shepelev was left overnight by the police, and the next day the court fined him 2 thousand rubles, deciding that he resisted the security forces during a search (Article 19.3 of the Administrative Code).
In addition, 16 thousand euros were awarded to Daniil Ogrenich, a protest participant detained on April 21 in St. Petersburg. The ECtHR found that the Russian authorities violated Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights in relation to the applicants, which provides that no one shall be subjected to torture or inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Russia after exclusion from The Council of Europe refused to implement ECHR decisions made after March 15, 2022.
Activists, police officers and prisoners. Who was awarded a million euros by the ECHR for torture by the FSB and other security forces