CASE OF VOYNOV v. RUSSIA
Violation of Article 13+8 - Right to an effective remedy (Article 13 - Effective remedy) (Article 8-1 - Respect for family life;Article 8 - Right to respect for private and family life)
Alena Poláčková;Dmitry Dedov;Georgios A. Serghides;Helen Keller;Helena Jäderblom
5. The applicant was born in 1985 and lives in Oryol. He is currently serving his sentence in IK-7 in the village of Areyskoye, Krasnoyarsk Region. 6. The applicant, his partner and his mother were living in Oryol when the applicant was charged with drug-related crimes. 7. On 2 December 2009 the Federal Penal Authority (“Федеральная служба исполнения наказаний”, “the FSIN”) of Russia sent a telegram to the FSIN department for the Oryol Region (“the Oryol FSIN”) instructing the latter to send each month up to forty people detained in remand prisons and sentenced to a term of imprisonment in a strict-regime facility to the Krasnoyarsk Region. The instruction was valid as of 1 December 2009 until further notice. 8. On 7 December 2009 the Sovetskiy District Court of Oryol convicted the applicant of drug-related crimes and sentenced him to twelve years’ imprisonment in a strict-regime post-conviction detention facility. On 2 February 2010 the Oryol Regional Court upheld the conviction on appeal. 9. Acting on the basis of the FSIN of Russia’s instruction of 2 December 2009, on an unspecified date the Oryol FSIN decided, in view of the overcrowding in the postconviction detention facilities in the Oryol Region, that the issue of which particular facility the applicant would be transferred to should be resolved by the FSIN department for the Krasnoyarsk Region (“the Krasnoyarsk FSIN”). The latter allocated the applicant to IK-7, a strict-regime post-conviction detention facility in the village of Areyskoye, Krasnoyarsk Region (about 4,200 km from Oryol), to serve his sentence. The applicant has been detained there since 20 April 2010. 10. The applicant has repeatedly asked the penal authorities at different levels to transfer him to a detention facility located closer to Oryol so that he could effectively maintain family ties while serving his sentence. 11. On 12 November 2010 the FSIN of Russia rejected the applicant’s request, informing him that, under Article 81 of the Code on the Execution of Sentences (“the CES”), in the absence of exceptional circumstances convicts were to serve their prison term in its entirety in the same detention facility, and that there were no such exceptional circumstances in the applicant’s case. They noted as follows: “[a]s regards maintaining the convict’s social ties, the right to receive visits and parcels as well as the right to correspondence and phone calls should be realised in accordance with the laws on execution of sentences in force and does not depend on the place in which he is serving the sentence.” 12. The applicant brought civil proceedings against the Oryol FSIN, claiming compensation for pecuniary and nonpecuniary damage caused by their decision to transfer him to a penal facility in the Krasnoyarsk Region in breach of his right, under Article 73 § 1 of the CES, to serve his prison sentence in his home region, which had adversely affected his capacity to maintain his family and social ties. 13. On 3 August 2012 the Zavodskoy District Court of Oryol dismissed the claims for damages with reference to Article 73 § 2 of the CES and Ruling No. 1700-O-O of the Constitutional Court of Russia. The court held that the Oryol FSIN’s decision had been lawful because between December 2009 and February 2010 the penal facilities in the Oryol Region had been overcrowded. It also noted that the defendant had acted in accordance with the FSIN of Russia’s instructions. The court did not address the applicant’s argument regarding his difficulties in maintaining family ties because of the distance between his family home and the detention facility. It appears that the applicant did not appeal against the judgment. 14. Between July 2011 and October 2013 the applicant’s partner made long-term family visits to IK-7 on six occasions. In 2014 she gave birth to the couple’s daughter. While in IK-7, the applicant received a number of parcels and phone calls from his mother and partner.