MOKIN AND OTHERS v. RUSSIA - 49876/16 (Judgment : Violation of Prohibition of torture (Degrading treatment) [2018] ECHR 47 (11 January 2018)

In the case of Mokin 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 7 December 2017,

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 Mr A. 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 raised other complaints under the provisions 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, §§ 139-165, 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. OTHER ALLEGED VIOLATIONS UNDER WELL-ESTABLISHED CASE-LAW

12. Some applicants also argued under Article 13 of the Convention that they did not have an effective domestic remedy to complain about poor detention conditions. The complaints fall under 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 § 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 v. Russia, no. 5993/08, § 45, 28 November 2013.

IV. REMAINING COMPLAINTS

13. In application no. 78505/16, the applicant also raised other complaints under various Articles of the Convention.

14. The Court has examined the applications listed in the appended table 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 applications must be rejected in accordance with Article 35 § 4 of the Convention.

V. APPLICATION OF ARTICLE 41 OF THE CONVENTION

15. 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.”

16. 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.

17. 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 complaints concerning the inadequate conditions of detention 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 no. 78505/16 inadmissible;

3. Holds that these complaints 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 11 January 2018, pursuant to Rule 77 §§ 2 and 3 of the Rules of Court.

Liv Tigerstedt Luis López Guerra

Acting Deputy Registrar President

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 Number of toilets per brigade	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]
1.	49876/16 15/08/2016	Roman Valeryevich Mokin 21/11/1976	IK-1 Kostroma 14/08/2008 to 17/06/2016 7 year(s) and 10 month(s) and 4 day(s)	100 inmate(s) 2 m²	overcrowding, lack of or insufficient natural light, lack of or insufficient electric light, lack of fresh air, poor quality of food, mouldy or dirty cell, infestation of cell with insects/rodents, lack of or inadequate hygienic facilities, sharing cells with inmates infected with contagious disease, lack of or insufficient physical exercise in fresh air		5,000
2.	52551/16 20/08/2016	Andrey Sergeyevich Potemkin 13/06/1982	IK-1 Kostroma 15/07/2012 to 14/07/2016 4 year(s)	100 inmate(s) 1.7 m²	overcrowding, lack of or insufficient natural light, lack of or inadequate hygienic facilities, infestation of cell with insects/rodents		5,000
3.	54118/16 26/08/2016	Aleksey Vitalyevich Suslovskiy 25/09/1981	IK-1 Kostroma 28/11/2007 to 26/07/2016 8 year(s) and 7 month(s) and 29 day(s)	100 inmate(s) 1.6-2.5 m²	lack of or insufficient natural light, lack of or insufficient electric light, poor quality of food, no or restricted access to running water, infestation of cell with insects/rodents, sharing cells with inmates infected with contagious disease, lack of or insufficient physical exercise in fresh air, poor conditions of work place		5,000
4.	54239/16 01/09/2016	Dmitriy Aleksandrovich Bybyn 21/02/1978	IK-1 Kostroma 25/05/2011 to 09/08/2016 5 year(s) and 2 month(s) and 16 day(s)	100 inmate(s) 0.6 m²	overcrowding, lack of or insufficient electric light, lack of fresh air, lack or insufficient quantity of food, poor quality of food, infestation of cell with insects/rodents, mouldy or dirty cell, lack of or insufficient physical exercise in fresh air		5,000
5.	54245/16 03/09/2016	Aleksey Vitalyevich Solodov 13/04/1978	IK-1 Kostroma 11/09/2014 to 25/08/2016 1 year(s) and 11 month(s) and 15 day(s)	100 inmate(s) 0.6 m²	mouldy or dirty cell, infestation of cell with insects/rodents, overcrowding, lack of or insufficient physical exercise in fresh air, lack of or insufficient electric light, lack of fresh air, sharing cells with inmates infected with contagious disease, lack or insufficient quantity of food, poor quality of food		5,000
6.	54598/16 08/09/2016	Igor Valentonovich Alekseyev 04/09/1969	IK-1 Kostroma 08/12/2014 to 03/06/2016 1 year(s) and 5 month(s) and 27 day(s)	1.5 m²	overcrowding, infestation of cell with insects/rodents, mouldy or dirty cell, lack of or insufficient electric light, lack of fresh air, lack of or inadequate hygienic facilities, poor quality of food		5,000
7.	57452/16 24/09/2016	Denis Valeryevich Koshkov 20/12/1984	IK-4 Kostroma 11/10/2013 to 09/09/2016 2 year(s) and 10 month(s) and 30 day(s)		lack of or insufficient natural light, lack of fresh air, lack of or inadequate hygienic facilities, infestation of cell with insects/rodents, mouldy or dirty cell, high humidity, lack of or insufficient physical exercise in fresh air, poor quality of potable water, lack or insufficient quantity of food	Art. 13 - lack of any effective remedy in respect of inadequate conditions of detention -	5,000
8.	75107/16 21/11/2016	Dmitriy Vladimirovich Grustlivyy 11/10/1971	IK-1 Kostroma 05/07/2016 pending More than 1 year(s) and 4 month(s) and 14 day(s)	120 inmate(s) 1.5-2 m²	overcrowding, infestation of cell with insects/rodents, mouldy or dirty cell, lack of or insufficient electric light, no or restricted access to shower, 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 -	6,300
9.	78505/16 09/12/2016	Ivan Gennadyevich Konyshev 14/12/1980	IK-1 Kostroma 28/01/2016 pending More than 1 year(s) and 9 month(s) and 22 day(s)	100 inmate(s) 1.6 m²	overcrowding, lack of or insufficient electric light, lack of fresh air, lack or insufficient quantity of food, no or restricted access to shower, infestation of cell with insects/rodents, mouldy or dirty cell, sharing cells with inmates infected with contagious disease, lack of or insufficient physical exercise in fresh air	Art. 13 - lack of any effective remedy in respect of inadequate conditions of detention -	7,500
10.	79536/16 07/12/2016	Oksana Stepanovna Moskaleva 18/06/1980	IK-8 Kostroma 06/09/2011 to 26/08/2016 4 year(s) and 11 month(s) and 21 day(s)	100 inmate(s) 0.6 m² 3 toilet(s)	inadequate temperature, infestation of cell with insects/rodents, overcrowding, lack of or insufficient physical exercise in fresh air, lack of or insufficient electric light, lack of fresh air, mouldy or dirty cell, sharing cells with inmates infected with contagious disease, poor quality of food, lack of privacy for toilet, lack of or inadequate hygienic facilities	Art. 13 - lack of any effective remedy in respect of inadequate conditions of detention -	5,000
11.	6161/17 13/12/2016	Sergey Ivanovich Speranskiy 07/01/1990	IK-1 Kostroma Region (ОТ-15/4) 10/02/2014 to 09/11/2016 2 year(s) and 9 month(s)	100 inmate(s) 1.3 m²	overcrowding, infestation of cell with insects/rodents, high humidity, lack of or insufficient physical exercise in fresh air, lack of or insufficient electric light, lack of fresh air, no or restricted access to shower, poor quality of potable water, 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 -	5,000
12.	6252/17 09/01/2017	Andrey Nikolayevich Mikhaylov 21/02/1985	IK-1 Kostroma 31/01/2014 to 29/07/2016 2 year(s) and 5 month(s) and 30 day(s)	100 inmate(s) 1.8 m²	overcrowding, lack of or insufficient natural light, lack of or insufficient electric light, poor quality of food, no or restricted access to shower, no or restricted access to warm water, infestation of cell with insects/rodents, sharing cells with inmates infected with contagious disease, 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
13.	6259/17 19/12/2016	Yelizaveta Aleksandrovna Yakovleva 09/02/1980	IK-8 Kostroma 13/12/2007 to 12/12/2016 9 year(s)	100 inmate(s) 1.8 m²	inadequate temperature, lack of privacy for toilet, infestation of cell with insects/rodents, no or restricted access to shower, sharing cells with inmates infected with contagious disease	Art. 13 - lack of any effective remedy in respect of inadequate conditions of detention -	5,000

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You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> European Court of Human Rights >> MOKIN AND OTHERS v. RUSSIA - 49876/16 (Judgment : Violation of Prohibition of torture (Degrading treatment) [2018] ECHR 47 (11 January 2018) URL: http://www.bailii.org/eu/cases/ECHR/2018/47.html Cite as: ECLI:CE:ECHR:2018:0111JUD004987616, CE:ECHR:2018:0111JUD004987616, [2018] ECHR 47