CASE OF CHAUSHEV AND OTHERS v. RUSSIA
Violation of Article 6 - Right to a fair trial (Article 6 - Criminal proceedings;Article 6-1 - Public hearing)
Alena Poláčková;Branko Lubarda;Dmitry Dedov;Helen Keller;Helena Jäderblom;Luis López Guerra;Pere Pastor Vilanova
6. The applicants were born in 1977, 1969, and 1975 respectively and at the time the case was introduced were imprisoned in Kochubeyevskoye and Aleksandria. 7. They were among 17 people facing assorted charges related to the socalled Karachay-Circassian Jamaat, a militant Islamist underground movement active in the North Caucasus in the late 1990s and early 2000s. 8. When the case came to trial before the Stavropol Regional Court, on 12 April 2002 a judge ordered – without giving any explanation – that the trial be held behind closed doors in remand prison IZ26/2 in Pyatigorsk. 9. On 11 July 2002 the court sentenced the applicants to ten, five, and six years respectively. The applicants lodged an appeal with the Supreme Court, complaining, among other things, that the trial had been closed to the public. On 14 May 2003 the Supreme Court upheld the judgment without replying to the complaint.