NOCHEVKA AND OTHERS v. RUSSIA - 31681/16 (Judgment : Violation of - Prohibition of torture (Degrading treatment) (Substantive aspect) [2017] ECHR 1157 (14 December 2017)

In the case of Nochevka 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 23 November 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 applications were communicated to the Russian Government (“the Government”).

THE FACTS

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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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.”

7. 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).

8. 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.

9. 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.

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

III. REMAINING COMPLAINTS

11. In applications nos. 31681/16, 73268/16 and 75335/16, 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 v. Russia (cited above, §§ 38-45, pertaining to the absence of an effective remedy to complaint about the conditions of detention in Russia) and Idalov v. Russia [GC] (no. 5826/03, 22 May 2012, §§ 103-108 concerning the conditions of transport of detainees).

IV. APPLICATION OF ARTICLE 41 OF THE CONVENTION

12. 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.”

13. 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.

14. 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 14 December 2017, 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.	31681/16 26/04/2016	Vitaliy Anatolyevich Nochevka 28/12/1981	IK-I Syktyvkar 14/11/2015 to 25/08/2016 9 month(s) and 12 day(s)	48 inmate(s)	lack of or insufficient natural light, lack of or insufficient electric light, lack of fresh air, mouldy or dirty cell, insufficient number of sleeping places, sharing cells with inmates infected with contagious disease, inadequate temperature, no or restricted access to warm water, lack of privacy for toilet, no or restricted access to shower, poor quality of food	Art. 3 - inadequate conditions of detention during transport - van, train, on 13/11/2015, 0,3 sq. m., overcrowding, lack of or insufficient natural light, lack of fresh air, inadequate temperature, lack of or insufficient electric light. , Art. 13 - lack of any effective remedy in respect of inadequate conditions of detention	5,600
2.	36260/16 14/06/2016	Akhmadzhon Kodirovich Khamidov 01/06/1954	IK-11 Nizhny Novgorod 18/06/2006 pending More than 11 year(s) and 4 month(s) and 7 day(s)	140 inmate(s) 2.2 m² 6 toilet(s)	overcrowding, lack of or restricted access to leisure or educational activities, no or restricted access to warm water, poor quality of food, lack or insufficient quantity of food, lack of or poor quality of bedding and bed linen, no or restricted access to toilet		9,300
3.	39451/16 22/06/2016	Aleksandr Alekseyevich Ilyin 08/07/1972	IK-11 Nizhny Novgorod 20/11/2011 to 08/11/2016 4 year(s) and 11 month(s) and 20 day(s)	2.2 m² 6 toilet(s)	overcrowding, lack or insufficient quantity of food, poor quality of food, no or restricted access to warm water, lack of or restricted access to leisure or educational activities		6,300
4.	61780/16 21/11/2016	Yevgeniy Vladimirovich Groshev 22/05/1990	IK-25 Kirov Region 06/07/2016 to 12/10/2016 3 month(s) and 7 day(s)	6 inmate(s) 2.3 m²	lack of fresh air, inadequate temperature, no or restricted access to warm water, lack of or poor quality of bedding and bed linen, no or restricted access to shower, insufficient number of sleeping places, lack or inadequate furniture, lack of legal notice		2,100
5.	68809/16 07/11/2016	Aleksey Aleksandrovich Titov 17/10/1968	IK-11 Nizhny Novgorod 01/06/2015 pending More than 2 year(s) and 4 month(s) and 24 day(s)	2.2 m²	overcrowding, no or restricted access to warm water, lack or insufficient quantity of food, poor quality of food, lack of or poor quality of bedding and bed linen		8,000
6.	73268/16 18/11/2016	Leonid Vladimirovich Shibashov 24/02/1987	IK-5 Mordoviya 23/08/2016 pending More than 1 year(s) and 2 month(s) and 2 day(s)	70 inmate(s) 1 m²	overcrowding, lack of or insufficient natural light, lack of fresh air, lack of or inadequate hygienic facilities, sharing cells with inmates infected with contagious disease	Art. 13 - lack of any effective remedy in respect of inadequate conditions of detention -	5,800
7.	75335/16 15/11/2016	Yuriy Vladimirovich Rudak 06/10/1961	IK-25 Kirov Region 15/06/2016 to 22/06/2016 8 day(s) IK-25 Kirov Region 27/07/2016 to 03/08/2016 8 day(s) IK-25 Kirov Region 24/08/2016 to 31/08/2016 8 day(s)	1.3 m² 1.3 m² 1.3 m²	overcrowding, lack of or insufficient natural light, passive smoking, lack of fresh air overcrowding, lack of or insufficient natural light, lack of fresh air, passive smoking, mouldy or dirty cell overcrowding, passive smoking, lack of or insufficient natural light, lack of fresh air	Art. 13 - lack of any effective remedy in respect of inadequate conditions of detention -	1,000

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You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> European Court of Human Rights >> NOCHEVKA AND OTHERS v. RUSSIA - 31681/16 (Judgment : Violation of - Prohibition of torture (Degrading treatment) (Substantive aspect) [2017] ECHR 1157 (14 December 2017) URL: http://www.bailii.org/eu/cases/ECHR/2017/1157.html Cite as: CE:ECHR:2017:1214JUD003168116, ECLI:CE:ECHR:2017:1214JUD003168116, [2017] ECHR 1157