On January 20, the European Court of Human Rights adopted and published its judgment “Bekirov and Others v. Russia” in a group of cases, related to the occupiers’ attacks on freedom of peaceful assembly in occupied Crimea from 2014 to 2017, finding the aggressor’s violation of Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights and the right to justice, as well as, in some cases, the right to liberty.
This decision consolidated 43 cases involving approximately 80 applicants repressed by the occupiers, the vast majority of whom are Crimean Tatars. These cases concern the occupiers’ persecution of participants in peaceful assemblies marking the anniversary of their deportation, Ukraine’s Independence Day, protests against searches and detentions, and so on.
The applicants were subjected to “administrative penalties” for allegedly “violating the rules for holding rallies.” At the same time, the European Court reaffirmed that the “courts” created by the occupiers, through which these repressions were carried out, themselves violate the right to justice as unlawful bodies.
In cases where the applicants demanded just satisfaction from the aggressor, the European Court granted it, averaging approximately 10,000 euros per applicant. The European Court’s decision of January 20 was the first issued on individual applications against Russia concerning the events in occupied Crimea from 2014 to 2021, and now, it is highly likely that other decisions will follow in this group of cases, which the Court has postponed for a decade.
