DUBININ AND OTHERS v. RUSSIA - 37783/16 (Judgment : Violation of Prohibition of torture ( Degrading treatment) (Substantive aspect) Violation of Article 1...) [2017] ECHR 889 (12 October 2017)

In the case of Dubinin 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 21 September 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. In application no. 37783/16, the applicant also raised a complaint under Article 13 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 application no. 37783/16, the applicant also raised a complaint under Article 13 of the Convention, in accordance with the relevant well-established case-law of the Court (see appended table). This complaint is not manifestly ill-founded within the meaning of Article 35 § 3 (a) of the Convention, nor is it inadmissible on any other ground. Accordingly, it must be declared admissible. Having examined all the material before it, the Court concludes that it also discloses a violation of the Convention in the light of its findings in Sergey Babushkin v. Russia, no. 5993/08, §§ 38-45, 28 November 2013.

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, in application no. 37783/16, there has been a violation of Article 13 of the Convention as regards the other complaint 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 12 October 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	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 for pecuniary and non-pecuniary damage and costs and expenses per applicant (in euros)[1]
1.	37783/16 11/11/2016	Valeriy Viktorovich Dubinin 08/04/1979	IK-36 Krasnoyarskiy Krai 11/11/2014 to 18/04/2017 2 year(s) and 5 month(s) and 8 day(s)	2.5 m²	Overcrowding, lack or inadequate furniture, lack of or inadequate hygienic facilities, no or restricted access to toilet, lack of privacy for toilet, no or restricted access to running water.	Art. 13 - lack of any effective remedy in respect of inadequate conditions of detention.	6,500
2.	46834/16 20/07/2016	Vyacheslav Yevgenyevich Smirnov 02/09/1971	IK-11 Nizhegorodskiy Region 27/05/2013 pending More than 4 year(s) and 3 month(s) and 3 day(s)	140 inmate(s) 2.3 m² 6 toilet(s)	Overcrowding, no or restricted access to warm water, lack of or restricted access to leisure or educational activities, poor quality of food.		8,500
3.	48299/16 18/06/2016	Andrey Vladimirovich Klimin 13/08/1978	IK-11 Nizhegorodskiy Region 19/04/2010 pending More than 7 year(s) and 4 month(s) and 11 day(s)	129 inmate(s) 2 m² 6 toilet(s)	Overcrowding, no or restricted access to warm water, lack of or restricted access to leisure or educational activities.		8,800
4.	50497/16 29/07/2016	Mikhail Mikhaylovich Gagarin 17/03/1988	IK-11 Nizhegorodskiy Region 15/11/2012 pending More than 4 year(s) and 9 month(s) and 15 day(s)	38 inmate(s) 1.8 m²	Overcrowding, lack of fresh air, poor quality of food.		8,500
5.	50828/16 10/08/2016	Aleksandr Sergeyevich Nefedov 19/06/1983	IK-11 Nizhegorodskiy Region 29/12/2014 pending More than 2 year(s) and 8 month(s) and 1 day(s)	140 inmate(s) 2.3 m² 6 toilet(s)			8,300
6.	50946/16 17/08/2016	Roman Nikolayevich Lebedev 08/07/1981	IK-11 Nizhegorodskiy Region 20/08/2012 to 19/09/2016 4 year(s) and 1 month(s)	130 inmate(s) 3 m² 6 toilet(s)	Inadequate temperature, overcrowding, lack or insufficient quantity of food, lack of or inadequate hygienic facilities, lack of or restricted access to leisure or educational activities.		5,500
7.	52555/16 22/08/2016	Aleksandr Ivanovich Avdeyev 10/06/1963	IK-11, Bor, Nizhniy Novgorod Region 20/02/2012 to 29/11/2016 4 year(s) and 9 month(s) and 10 day(s)	38 inmate(s) 1,8 m² 8 toilet(s)	Lack of fresh air, inadequate temperature, lack of or insufficient natural light, constant electric light, lack of privacy for toilet, lack of privacy in the shower, poor quality of food, insufficient and not season-related providing of shoes and clothes, early reveille (5 am), overcrowding.		6,000
8.	52563/16 19/08/2016	Sergey Nikolayevich Vologin 27/07/1967	IK-11 Nizhegorodskiy Region 04/03/2013 pending More than 4 year(s) and 5 month(s) and 26 day(s)	58 inmate(s) 1.5 m²	Overcrowding.		8,300
9.	66925/16 25/10/2016	Anatoliy Gusmanovich Gismatulin 05/06/1966	IK-1 Arkhangelsk Region 01/06/2015 pending More than 2 year(s) and 2 month(s) and 29 day(s)	90 inmate(s) 1.6 m²	Overcrowding, lack of fresh air, poor quality of potable water, no or restricted access to warm water.		7,800
10.	69653/16 01/11/2016	Boris Valentinovich Voronkov 22/07/1962	IK-11 Nizhegorodskiy Region 13/09/2012 pending More than 4 year(s) and 11 month(s) and 17 day(s)	130 inmate(s) 2 m²	Overcrowding, lack or insufficient quantity of food, lack of or inadequate hygienic facilities, no or restricted access to toilet, no or restricted access to shower, lack of requisite medical assistance.		7,500

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