The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has agreed to assess the cases of two individuals being represented by Open Russia in connection with the 2017 March 26 anti-corruption demonstrations in Russia during which over 1000 people were detained.

The two cases in question are of Nikita Mileshin, who was detained during the demonstration in Moscow, as well as Ekaterina Kenareva, assistant to the director responsible for broadcasting the demonstration live on the Youtube channel Navalny LIVE.

Mileshin was detained on Moscow’s central Tverskaya Square while attempting to pass between a police cordon.  A local court put him under arrest for 7 days for disobeying police officers.  Kenareva was removed from the offices of Alexey Navalny’s Moscow Headquarters and taken down to a local police station where she was put under arrest for 7 days under the same charges as Mileshin.

In the appeal to the ECHR Open Russia’s defence lawyers pointed out that articles 5 and 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which guarantee the person’s right to liberty and the right to a fair trial, had been violated in the case of the detainees.

In total, Open Russia filed five complains in connection with March 26, with three still awaiting consideration.  According to the lawyers, it is common to wait up to two years for a response from the European Court of Human Rights.