Today, Platon Lebedev’s defence filed to the European Court of Human Rights an application concerning decisions of Judge Komissarov from the Tverskoy District Court of Moscow, who in April and May 2012 refused to grant Lebedev’s law suits for non-pecuniary damages for unlawful detention. Yesterday, the lawyers filed cassation appeals against the decisions of Judge Komissarov and subsequent court decisions to the Presidium of the Moscow City Court.

See the appeals of the defence at the bottom of this page (attached files).

Lawyer Alexey Miroshnichenko commented: “Blatantly unlawful, amoral and cynical decisions of Judge E.B. Komissarov, who is also the Deputy Chairman of the Tverskoy District Court of the city of Moscow, to refuse to grant P.L. Lebedev’s suit for non-pecuniary damages due to his unlawful arrest came into force, as was expected and anticipated in this atmosphere of mutual cover-up.

Having gone through the appellate instance of the Moscow City Court, P.L. Lebedev became able to appeal these decisions to the European Court, and his lawyers made use of this opportunity. In parallel, we are continuing to appeal the Tverskoy District Court decisions to the higher instances of Russian courts. P.L. Lebedev’s position in this elementary issue is a matter of principle. Such compensation is guaranteed by Article 5 § 5 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights, which Russia committed to observe. Platon Leonidovich intends not to leave any single one of the violations of his rights without proper reaction, and he will go to the very end seeking justice.”

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From lawyer Elena Liptser’s application to the European Court of Human Rights: “The fact that the judge of the Khamovnichesky District Court of the city of Moscow, who unlawfully extended the applicant’s detention, and the judges of the Moscow City Court subordinated to the Chair of the Moscow City Court, O.A. Yegorova, systematically breached the law, was exactly the reason why the law suits were filed after the Applicant’s detention had been found to be unlawful [by the RF Supreme Court].”

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The Applicant submits that there has been a violation of his right guaranteed by Article 5 § 5 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms: “Everyone who has been the victim of arrest or detention in contravention of the provisions of this article shall have an enforceable right to compensation.”

The mere fact that the RF Supreme Court found Applicant’s detention to be unlawful means a violation of the requirements of Article 5 of the Convention that guarantees the right to liberty and security of person and lawful detention only.”

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From the appeals of Alexey Miroshnichenko and Elena Liptser to the Presidium of the Moscow City Court: “The judicial acts under appeal are nothing but attempts to evade making elementary decisions on some motives that have nothing to do with justice. All that the court had to do from the point of view of the law during the resolution of the law suit was to find, based on the finding of the unlawfulness of the court judgment that had already been made and on the statement on the part of the claimant of the fact of non-pecuniary damages caused to him, and pursuant to the provisions designed specifically for such a case (Art. 1070 para. 1 and Art. 1100 CiC RF), that the non-pecuniary damages had to be satisfied by way of payment of pecuniary compensation from the treasury of the Russian Federation.”

Files:

Complaint to the European Court of Human Rights
An appeal against the judge Komissarov decision, 2 April 2012
An appeal against the judge Komissarov decision, 16 May 2012