SMIRNOV AND OTHERS v. RUSSIA - 17883/16 (Judgment : Article 3 - Prohibition of torture : Third Section Committee) [2018] ECHR 197 (22 February 2018)

In the case of Smirnov and Others v. Russia,

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

Luis López Guerra, President,
Dmitry Dedov,
Jolien Schukking, judges,
and Liv Tigerstedt, Acting Deputy Section Registrar,

Having deliberated in private on 1 February 2018,

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 ("the Convention") on the various dates indicated in the appended table.

2. The applicants were represented by Aleksandr Vladimirovich Vinogradov, a lawyer practising in Kostroma.

3. The applications were communicated to the Russian Government ("the Government").

THE FACTS

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

5. The applicants complained of the inadequate conditions of their detention. Some applicants also complained under Article 13 of the Convention.

THE LAW

I. JOINDER OF THE APPLICATIONS

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

II. ALLEGED VIOLATION OF ARTICLE 3 OF THE CONVENTION

7. The applicants complained principally of the inadequate conditions of their detention. They relied on Article 3 of the Convention, which reads as follows:

Article 3

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

8. The Court notes that the applicants were kept in detention in poor conditions. The details of the applicants' detention are indicated in the appended table. The Court refers to the principles established in its case-�law regarding inadequate conditions of detention (see, for instance, Kudła v. Poland [GC], no. 30210/96, §§ 90-�94, ECHR 2000-�XI, and Ananyev and Others v. Russia, nos. 42525/07 and 60800/08, §§ 139-�65, 10 January 2012). It reiterates in particular that extreme lack of space in a prison cell or overcrowding weighs heavily as an aspect to be taken into account for the purpose of establishing whether the impugned detention conditions were "degrading" from the point of view of Article 3 and may disclose a violation, both alone or taken together with other shortcomings (see, amongst many authorities, Karalevičius v. Lithuania, no. 53254/99, §§ 36-�40, 7 April 2005).

9. In the leading case of Sergey Babushkin v. Russia, no. 5993/08, 28 November 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 on 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 applicants' conditions of detention were inadequate.

11. These complaints are therefore admissible and disclose a breach of Article 3 of the Convention.

III. REMAINING COMPLAINTS

12. In applications nos. 64466/16, 65233/16, 2224/17 and 4208/17, the applicants also submitted complaints under Article 13 of the Convention. 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 Sergey Babushkin, cited above, §§ 38-45.

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, Sergey Babushkin v. Russia, (just satisfaction), no. 5993/08, 16 October 2014, and Mozharov and Others v. Russia, no. 16401/12 and 9 others, 21 March 2017), the Court considers it reasonable to award the sums indicated in the appended table.

15. The Court 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. Decides to join the applications;

2. Declares the applications admissible;

3. Holds that these applications disclose a breach of Article 3 of the Convention concerning the inadequate conditions of detention;

4. 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 appended table);

5. Holds

(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 22 February 2018, pursuant to Rule 77 §§ 2 and 3 of the Rules of Court.

Liv TigerstedtLuis López Guerra

Acting Deputy RegistrarPresident

APPENDIX

List of applications raising complaints under Article 3 of the Convention

(inadequate conditions of detention)

No.	Application no. Date of introduction	Applicant name Date of birth	Facility Start and end date Duration	Inmates per brigade Sq. m. per inmate	Specific grievances	Other complaints under well-established case-law	Amount awarded for pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage and costs and expenses per applicant (in euros)[1]
	17883/16 18/03/2016	Dmitriy Yevgenyevich Smirnov 02/02/1982	IK-1 Kostroma 11/03/2014 to 13/11/2015 1 year(s) and 8 month(s) and 3 day(s)	98 inmate(s) 0.5 m²	infestation of the cell with insects, wet cells, lack of (regular) physical exercise on fresh air, lack of fresh air, overcrowding, lack of (sufficient) natural light, poor quality of food, poor washing facilities		5,000
	19624/16 01/04/2016	Sergey Pavlovich Smirnov 25/05/1983	FKU IK-1 Kostroma 01/05/2013 to 17/11/2015 2 year(s) and 6 month(s) and 17 day(s)	98 inmate(s) 0.5 m²	overcrowding, lack of (sufficient) natural light, lack of fresh air, poor quality of food, infestation of the cell with insects, humidity, lack of shower facilities, healthy and ill cell-mates kept together		5,000
	21838/16 29/03/2016	Sergey Anatolyevich Kolobov 10/05/1975	IK-4 Kostroma Region 01/04/2015 to 04/03/2016 11 month(s) and 4 day(s)	120 inmate(s) 2 m²	overcrowding, lack of (sufficient) natural light, lack of fresh air, lack of (adequate) heating, poor quality of food, infestation of the cell with insects, lack of (regular) physical exercise on fresh air, infestation of the cell with rats		5,000
	22411/16 11/04/2016	Aleksey Georgiyevich Gukin 04/03/1976	IK-1 Kostroma Region 01/01/2013 to 14/12/2015 2 year(s) and 11 month(s) and 14 day(s)	100 inmate(s) 0.6 m²	overcrowding, lack of (sufficient) natural light, lack of fresh air, infestation of the cell with insects, lack of (regular) physical exercise on fresh air, poor conditions of work, poor quality of food		5,000
	42277/16 10/07/2016	Yevgeniy Vladimirovich Maltsev 16/12/1978	IK-4 Kostroma region 02/05/2012 07/08/2017 5 year(s) and 3 month(s) and 6 day(s)	2 m²	overcrowding, mouldy or dirty cell, infestation of cell with insects/rodents, lack of or insufficient electric light, poor quality of potable water, lack of privacy for toilet, poor quality of food		8,300
	46855/16 01/08/2016	Andrey Mikhaylovich Platonov 29/08/1978	IK-1 Kostroma 30/07/2015 to 12/02/2016 6 month(s) and 14 day(s)	100 inmate(s) 2 m²	overcrowding, infestation of cell with insects/rodents, lack of fresh air, no or restricted access to running water, poor quality of food		3,200
	64466/16 17/11/2016	Mikhail Aleksandrovich Kotov 11/12/1973	IK-1 of Kostroma Region 24/11/2015 to 11/11/2016 11 month(s) and 19 day(s)	2 m²	overcrowding, inadequate temperature, sharing cells with inmates infected with contagious disease, lack of fresh air, infestation of cell with insects/rodents, no or insufficient disinfection of barbering and haircutting tools, lack of or insufficient physical exercise in fresh air, lack of or insufficient electric light, poor quality of food, poor conditions in workshop, poor conditions in workshop	Art. 13 - lack of any effective remedy in respect of inadequate conditions of detention -	5,000
	65233/16 31/10/2016	Sergey Petrovich Stepannikov 03/08/1961	IK-1 Kostroma 22/10/2015 to 15/08/2016 9 month(s) and 25 day(s)	0.6 m²	overcrowding, mouldy or dirty cell, infestation of cell with insects/rodents, lack of or insufficient natural light, lack of or insufficient physical exercise in fresh air, lack of or insufficient electric light, lack of fresh air, no or restricted access to running water, lack of or inadequate hygienic facilities, sharing cells with inmates infected with contagious disease, poor quality of food	Art. 13 - lack of any effective remedy in respect of inadequate conditions of detention -	4,300
	2224/17 14/12/2016	Igor Nikolayevich Stepanov 08/08/1987	IK-1 Kostroma 18/11/2014 to 13/12/2016 2 year(s) and 26 day(s)	100 inmate(s) 0.6 m²	mouldy or dirty cell, infestation of cell with insects/rodents, overcrowding, lack of or insufficient natural light, lack of fresh air, lack of or insufficient electric light, lack of or inadequate hygienic facilities, sharing cells with inmates infected with contagious disease, lack or insufficient quantity of food, poor quality of food, lack of or insufficient physical exercise in fresh air	Art. 13 - lack of any effective remedy in respect of inadequate conditions of detention -	5,000
	4208/17 23/12/2016	Roman Vladimirovich Vinogradov	IK-1 Kostroma region 02/12/2014 to 01/12/2016 2 year(s)	100 inmate(s) 0.6 m²	mouldy or dirty cell, infestation of cell with insects/rodents, overcrowding, lack of or insufficient natural light, lack of or insufficient electric light, lack of fresh air, lack of or inadequate hygienic facilities, sharing cells with inmates infected with contagious disease, poor quality of food, lack or insufficient quantity of food	Art. 13 - lack of any effective remedy in respect of inadequate conditions of detention -	5,000

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