CASE OF MAZEPA AND OTHERS v. RUSSIA
Violation of Article 2 - Right to life (Article 2-1 - Effective investigation) (Procedural aspect);Non-pecuniary damage - award (Article 41 - Non-pecuniary damage;Just satisfaction)
Alena Poláčková;Branko Lubarda;Dmitry Dedov;Georgios A. Serghides;Helen Keller;Helena Jäderblom
5. The applicants live in Moscow. The first applicant is the mother of the second applicant and of Ms Anna Politkovskaya, who was born in 1958 and died in 2006. The third and fourth applicants are Anna Politkovskaya’s children. 6. Anna Politkovskaya was a well-known investigative journalist who made a name for herself covering alleged violations of human rights in the Chechen Republic committed in the course of the counterterrorism operation in the region, an operation widely known as the “Second Chechen War”. Ms Politkovskaya was also an adamant critic of President Putin’s politics. 7. On 7 October 2006 Anna Politkovskaya was fatally shot in the lift in her block of flats in Moscow. A Makarov pistol with a silencer and bullet cartridges were found on the stairs. 8. On the same date the prosecutor’s office of Moscow opened a criminal investigation in case no. 18/377485-06 under Article 105 § 2 (b) of the Russian Criminal Code (“murder of a person committed in connection with his or her professional or civic duties”). Later, the case was transferred to the department for the investigation of particularly important cases of the Prosecutor General’s Office for investigation. 9. At an early stage of the investigation investigators inspected the crime scene, collected footage from surveillance cameras located in the vicinity, and examined logs of telephone connections made in the area around the time of the killing. 10. On 9 October 2006 forensic experts established that the death had been caused by gunshot wounds to the victim’s head, chest and right leg. On the same date a death certificate was issued. 11. On 12 October 2006 the fourth applicant was granted victim status. Later, the third applicant received such status as well. 12. Seeking to discern the motive for the crime, the investigation studied Anna Politkovskaya’s critical publications to establish against whom they had been targeted. They also questioned Ms Politkovskaya’s colleagues, friends and family as witnesses. In the Government’s submission, as a result of such actions, the investigation established that Anna Politkovskaya had met “a well-known Russian former politician” in London, and that unnamed person had proposed that she publish articles “to discredit the leadership of the Russian State, which she [had] refused to do, to his dislike”. 13. On 27 August 2007 the Prosecutor General of Russia stated at a press conference that there had been serious progress in the investigation of Ms Politkovskaya’s killing, and that ten people had been arrested in connection with the investigation. Another official of the Prosecutor General’s Office stated that a certain P.R. had been arrested. On 28 August 2007 the Tvoy Den’ newspaper (“Твой День”) published a list of people arrested in connection with Ms Politkovskaya’s murder, and commented that there were known hitmen among those detained. On 29 August 2007 a press officer of the Moscow City Court (“the City Court”) disclosed to the public a list of ten people detained in connection with Anna Politkovskaya’s assassination. 14. In the course of August 2007 four people, D.M., I.M., S.Kh. and P.R., were arrested in connection with the assassination. Two brothers, D.M. and I.M., had made phone calls near Ms Politkovskaya’s building; their car had been seen leaving the area on the day of the killing. Later, the investigation established that fibres found in their car were identical to those left on the murder weapon. S.Kh., a police officer, was arrested on the basis of a witness statement by D.P., also a police officer. P.R. was an officer of the FSB (Federal Security Service) who had known S.Kh. for a long time. 15. In June 2008 D.M., I.M. and S.Kh. were formally charged with contract killing in conspiracy with others. S.Kh. was regarded as the leader of the organised criminal group. P.R. was charged in the same set of proceedings with abuse of powers and extortion. 16. At some point R.M., a brother of D.M. and I.M. whom the investigation suspected to be implicated in the assassination, fled Russia on a forged passport. As appears from the applicants’ and the Government’s respective submissions, the forged passport was issued by staff of a department of the interior. 17. At some point R.M.’s name was put on an international wanted list. On 16 June 2008 a criminal case against R.M. was severed from the case against S.Kh., P.R., D.M. and I.M. 18. In June 2008 the investigators prepared a case against S.Kh., P.R., D.M. and I.M. to be transferred to a court. The applicants requested that the case file remain with the investigators. In their view, the investigation was incomplete, and sending the case file to a court would be premature. Nevertheless, the case file was transferred to the Moscow Circuit Military Court (“the Circuit Court”) for a jury trial. 19. In the course of court hearings in the period 2008-09 D.P., a highranking officer of the Moscow City Department of the Interior, was questioned as a witness for the prosecution. He submitted that, acting in his professional capacity, he had organised and conducted surveillance on Anna Politkovskaya shortly prior to her assassination. A certain L.-A.G. was also questioned as a witness. 20. At an unspecified point in time in the period 2008-09, the investigation included a summary of its findings in the case material, which the applicants referred to as a “presentation”. In particular, the summary contained details regarding Anna Politkovskaya, including the fact that she had had American nationality. The “presentation” was never shown to the jury. 21. On 19 February 2009, having heard the prosecution and the defence, the jury delivered a not-guilty verdict in respect of S.Kh., P.R., D.M. and I.M. 22. On 20 February 2009 the Circuit Court acquitted S.Kh., P.R., D.M. and I.M. The prosecution appealed. The third and fourth applicants decided not to appeal against the acquittal. 23. On 25 June 2009, in the appeal proceedings, the Supreme Court of Russia quashed the judgment of 20 February 2009 and remitted the case to the Circuit Court for fresh examination. 24. On 5 August 2009 the third and fourth applicants requested that the Circuit Court remit the case to the prosecutor’s office for further investigation. On 7 August 2009 the Circuit Court dismissed the application. The applicants appealed. 25. On 3 September 2009 the Supreme Court granted the third and fourth applicants’ application, and the case was transferred to the prosecutor’s office for further investigation. 26. On unspecified dates the charges against P.R. were dropped; L.A.G. was indicted. 27. On 31 May 2011 R.M., who had spent some time hiding in Belgium, was arrested in the Chechen Republic. 28. According to the applicants, at an unspecified point in time a certain O.G. informed them that he had information which was crucial for the investigation, and that he was willing to testify as a witness. At the applicants’ request, an investigator questioned him. O.G. stated that D.P. was implicated in the murder. According to the Government, the investigator in charge of the case attempted to find O.G., but could only gather evidence from him after he had been informed of the witness’s whereabouts in Ukraine. 29. On 26 August 2011 the Basmannyy District Court of Moscow (“the District Court”) ordered D.P.’s placement in custody. 30. On 31 August 2011 D.P. entered a guilty plea with the investigating authorities. He claimed that his acquaintances, L.-A.G. and S.Kh., had proposed that he organise unauthorised surveillance of Ms Politkovskaya. L.-A.G. had expressed his intention to kill the journalist and had said that D.P. could take part in the preparation for the assassination for a fee, which D.P. had accepted. Having received a large sum of money and instructions from L.-A.G., he had bought a pistol with a silencer from a stranger and passed it on to R.M. In the Government’s submission, L.-A.G. had not reported the motives for the killing, but had “mentioned that the crime [had been] ordered by a wellknown person living in the United Kingdom”. 31. On 29 August 2012 the criminal case against D.P. was severed and a separate investigation was created; the applicants disagreed with that decision. On 14 December 2012 the Moscow City Court (“the City Court”) sentenced D.P. to eleven years’ imprisonment. The applicants appealed against the judgment, arguing that the sentence was too lenient. On an unspecified date D.P.’s conviction was upheld on appeal. 32. At some point the case file against S.Kh., R.M., D.M., I.M. and L.A.G. was transferred to the City Court for trial. 33. On 20 June 2013 the City Court commenced a jury trial of S.Kh., R.M., D.M., I.M. and L.-A.G. 34. On 14 November 2013 the jury was dismissed for the reason that only eleven jurors out of twelve appeared in the courtroom. 35. On 14 January 2014 hearings before a new composition of the jury commenced. 36. On 29 May 2014 the jury delivered a verdict finding all five coaccused guilty of Anna Politkovskaya’s murder. They also found R.M. guilty of kidnapping a third party in October 1996. 37. On 9 June 2014 the City Court delivered a judgment. It found that L.-A.G. had “accepted an offer from an unidentified person who had been dissatisfied with publications by Anna Politkovskaya in Novaya Gazeta concerning violations of human rights, the embezzlement of State property, and abuse of public office by civil servants” – an offer of a fee of at least 150,000 United States dollars to organise the journalist’s killing. L.A.G. had then involved his nephews, R.M., D.M., and I.M., as well as “a person in respect of whom the criminal case had been severed” and his acquaintance S.Kh. in the preparation for the killing. On the basis of the jury’s guilty verdict, the City Court characterised the murder as one committed by an organised group for a fee in connection with the victim’s performance of her professional and civic duties. It also found that L.A.G., R.M. and D.M. were guilty of illegal arms operations. It refused to terminate the proceedings against R.M. regarding the events of 1996 under the statute of limitations, because the latter had been wanted in connection with those events since 1997, and found him guilty of kidnapping and extortion. The City Court sentenced L.A.G. – regarded as the organiser of the killing – and R.M. – regarded as the hitman – to life imprisonment. D.M. and I.M. were sentenced to fourteen and twelve years’ imprisonment respectively. S.Kh. was sentenced to twenty years’ imprisonment. Civil claims by the third and fourth applicants were resolved as follows. The third and fourth applicants were each awarded 700,000 Russian roubles ((RUB) – approximately 14,790 euros (EUR)) to be paid by L.-A.G. and R.M. respectively, RUB 500,000 (approximately EUR 10,570) to be paid by S.Kh., and RUB 300,000 (approximately EUR 6,340) to be paid by D.M. and I.M. respectively. 38. The defendants appealed against the conviction. 39. On 26 June 2015, in the appeal proceedings, the Supreme Court of Russia found that the guilty verdict was based on a thorough examination of the evidence. Upholding the conviction as a whole, the Supreme Court slightly mitigated the sentence regarding illegal arms operations in respect of L.-A.G., R.M. and D.M. However, pursuant to the rules on combining sentences for multiple offences, this did not affect L.A.G.’s and R.M.’s life sentences. D.M.’s term of imprisonment was reduced to thirteen years and nine months. 40. In the Government’s submission, the investigation into Anna Politkovskaya’s killing has not been terminated. They provided copies of the City Court’s judgment of 9 June 2014 and the Supreme Court’s appeal judgment of 26 June 2015.