European Court of Human Rights

 

 

 

THIRD SECTION

 

 

 

 

 

CASE OF KARGASHIN AND OTHERS v. RUSSIA

(Applications nos. 66757/14 and 6 others -

see appended list)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

JUDGMENT

 

 

STRASBOURG

 

21 March 2017

 

 

 

 

This judgment will become final in the circumstances set out in Article 44 § 2 of the Convention. It may be subject to editorial revision.

 




In the case of Kargashin and Others v. Russia,

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

          Helena Jäderblom, President,
          Branko Lubarda,
          Luis López Guerra,
          Helen Keller,
          Dmitry Dedov,
          Pere Pastor Vilanova,
          Alena Poláčková, judges,
and Stephen Phillips, Section Registrar,

Having deliberated in private on 28 February 2017,

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

PROCEDURE

1.  The case originated in applications against the Russian Federation 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 indicted in the appended table.

2.  The Russian Government (“the Government”) were represented by Mr G. Matyushkin, the Representative of the Russian Federation to the European Court of Human Rights.

3.  The applications were communicated to 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. They 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:

 “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, Muršić v. Croatia [GC], no. 7334/13, §§ 91-141, ECHR 2016; 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.  REMAINING COMPLAINTS

12.  The applicants submitted other complaints which also raised issues under the Convention, in accordance with 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 case (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, to its case-law (see, in particular, Butko v. Russia, no. 32036/10, 12 November 2015 and Sergey Babushkin v. Russia, (just satisfaction), no. 5993/08, 16 October 2014), and to a long delay for some of the applicants in filing the application, 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 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 from the date on which the judgment becomes final in accordance with Article 44 § 2 of the Convention, 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 21 March 2017, pursuant to Rule 77 §§ 2 and 3 of the Rules of Court.

      Stephen Phillips                                                             Helena Jäderblom
            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	Representative name and location	Facility Start and end date Duration	Number of inmates per brigade / Sq. m. per inmate / Number of toilets per brigade	Specific grievances	Other complaints under well-established case-law	Amount awarded per applicant (in euros)[1]
1.	66757/14 15/11/2014	Sergey Anatolyevich KARGASHIN 05/02/1977		Prison hospital No. LIU-1 Tomsk 26/12/2012 to 28/06/2014 1 year(s) and 6 month(s) and 3 day(s)	1.9 m²	not provided with an individual sleeping place and had to share the same with inmates, lack of fresh air, no ventilation, lack of natural light, dim electric light, unsanitary conditions, walls covered with fungus, infestation with mice, rats, bedbugs, lice, spiders and cockroaches, no sanitary measures by administration, no lavatory pan, no sink, no water supply system, no table, torn and dirty bed linen, poor state of a matrass, not provided with blankets and pillows, poor food quality, weekly shower for 15 min./7 inmates/3 shower heads, shower walls covered with slime, unsanitary conditions in shower, inmates infected with tuberculosis, hepatitis, syphilis, HIV and skin itch	Art. 13 - lack of any effective remedy in respect of inadequate conditions of detention	5,000
2.	73424/14 11/11/2014	Vladislav Vyacheslavovich BOBROV 16/02/1976	Gordeyeva Margarita Vladimirovna Astrakhan	IK-2 Astrakhan 07/04/2004 to 01/05/2010 6 year(s) and 25 day(s)                         IK-6 Astrakhan 01/05/2010 to 13/05/2014 4 year(s) and 13 day(s)	162 inmate(s) 1.3 m² 3 toilet(s)                             32 inmate(s) 1.3 m² 1 toilet(s)	4 sinks, no hot water, unpleasant taste and odour of running water, lavatory pans without doors, not provided with an individual sleeping place and had to share one with inmates, not provided with warm seasonal clothes and shoes, cold dormitory, one refrigerator, no room for storage of products, no room for drying and storage of clothes and shoes, no room for television viewing and rest, poor food quality, lack of natural light, dim electric light, infestation with mice, rats, bedbugs and cockroaches, no sanitary measures by the administration, a cement path of 1.5 m. in width and about 20 m. in length as a walking place separated with a solid fence of 3.5 m. high, daily walk for one hour, weekly shower for 12 min. per inmate   2 sinks, no hot water, unpleasant taste and odour of running water, lavatory pan without a door, not provided with an individual sleeping place and had to share one with inmates, not provided with warm seasonal clothes and shoes, cold dormitory, one refrigerator, no room for storage of products, no room for drying and storage of clothes and shoes, no room for television viewing and rest, poor food quality, lack of natural light, dim electric light, infestation with mice, rats, bedbugs and cockroaches, no sanitary measures by the administration, a cement path of 1.5 m. in width and about 20 m. in length as a walking place separated with a solid fence of 3.5 m. high, daily walk for one hour, weekly shower for 10 min. per inmate, two shower heads for 32 inmates	Art. 13 - lack of any effective remedy in respect of inadequate conditions of detention	5,000
3.	5138/15 11/12/2014	Andrey Aleksandrovich GOLUB 07/02/1979		IK-1 Syktyvkar 15/03/2011 pending More than 5 year(s) and 11 month(s) and 17 day(s)	130 inmate(s) 1.6 m² 4 toilet(s)	4 sinks, no hot water, inadequate quality and size of the clothes and shoes, the air heavy with cigarette smoke, no ventilation, damp premises, dim electric light, lack of separation of squat toilets, no disinfectants, bathroom covered with black fungus, bathing with 30 metal washbasins for 130 inmates once a week, bathing for 3 hours for 260 inmates, poor food quality		11,500
4.	5678/15 12/01/2015	Gafur Sarsenbayevich BIKIMOV 04/02/1975	Shorina Anastasiya Viktorovna Astrakhan	IK-2 Astrakhan 20/02/2008 pending More than 9 year(s) and 12 day(s)	170 inmate(s) 1.3 m² 4 toilet(s)	5 sinks, lavatory pans not separated from one another, not provided with an individual sleeping place and had to share one with inmates, not provided with warm seasonal clothes and shoes, weekly shower with 9 functioning shower heads for 10 min. per inmate, no shower from 02.03.14 till 01.09.14, small walking yard - a cement path of 1.5 in width and 20 m. in length, TV-set in sleeping premises on 24/7 very loudly, poor food quality, running water with unpleasant smell and colour is also for drinking, lack of natural light, infestation with bedbugs, cockroaches, mice and rats, no sanitary measures by administration	Art. 13 - lack of any effective remedy in respect of inadequate conditions of detention	11,000
5.	8055/15 03/02/2015	Nikolay Nikolayevich BIRYUKOV 25/10/1971	Shorina Anastasiya Viktorovna Astrakhan	IK-2 Astrakhan 11/01/2007 to 12/12/2014 7 year(s) and 11 month(s) and 2 day(s)	170 inmate(s) 1.3 m² 4 toilet(s)	not provided with an individual sleeping place and had to share one with several inmates, 5 sinks, toilet units without doors, not provided with warm seasonal clothes and shoes, small walking path of 1.5 m. in width and 20 m. in length, poor food quality, inadequate quality of running water, weekly shower for 8 min. per inmate	Art. 13 - lack of any effective remedy in respect of inadequate conditions of detention -	5,000
6.	9234/15 31/01/2015	Igor Vladimirovich POTEKHIN 23/08/1956		IK-2 Talitsa Ivanovo Region 15/01/2010 to 31/07/2014 4 year(s) and 6 month(s) and 17 day(s)	110 inmate(s) 2.1 m² 4 toilet(s)	damp premises, leaking roof, broken staircase, lack of natural light, dim electric light, infestation with mice, bedbugs, lice and cockroaches, no ventilation, lack of fresh air, the air heavy with cigarette smoke, 3 sinks, no hot water, inadequate quality of running water which was also for drinking, inadequate separation of lavatory pans, inadequate functioning of toilet flushing system allowed unpleasant odour to permeate the premises, dirty and torn bed linen, poor food quality, small walking yard -1.5 sq.m. per inmate	Art. 13 - lack of any effective remedy in respect of inadequate conditions of detention -	5,000
7.	11460/15 16/02/2015	Izbasar Gibadatovich TUGAYBAYEV 27/04/1984	Shorina Anastasiya Viktorovna Astrakhan	IK-2 Astrakhan 20/02/2012 pending More than 5 year(s) and 12 day(s)	145 inmate(s) 1.5 m² 4 toilet(s)	not provided with an individual sleeping place and had to share one with inmates, 5 sinks, not provided with warm seasonal clothes and shoes, weekly shower with 9 functioning shower heads for 10 min. per inmate, no shower as of 02.03.14, cement path of 1.5 in width and 20 m. in length as a walking space, TV-set in sleeping premises loudly on 24/7, poor food quality, poor quality of running/drinking water	Art. 13 - lack of any effective remedy in respect of inadequate conditions of detention	11,000

 




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