As it follows from the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights “Novaya Gazeta and Others v. Russia” of February 11, Strasbourg recognized the violation of Article 10 of the European Convention of repression in the form of “fines” and “detentions” for “discrediting the Russian army”.
In this judgment, the European Court united more than 160 applicants, most of whom are Russians, but also included cases of repression of two Crimean women, Susana Bezaziyeva and Anzhelika Kosareva, as well as Kyiv journalist Dmitry Gordon.
As it follows from the Court’s judgment, Kosareva was “arrested” and “fined” on March 24, 2022 in Simferopol for 30 thousand rubles for a poster “I am for peace”. Her case was handled by lawyer Natalia Baranova, together with the cases of four fined Russians, in the case “Gorelov and others v. Russia” 38123/22.
Bezaziyeva’s case was mentioned in the media, this Dzhankoy teacher was “fined” for the words spoken to students on April 13, 2022, that there were no fascists in Ukraine and that Ukrainian people and children were being brutally attacked, killed and raped by Russian soldiers.
As Dr. Borys Babin writes on this matter, “it was Ms. Bezaziyeva who became the first Crimean Tatar in history, the repressions against whom by the occupiers were considered by Strasbourg in essence, satisfying her claim.” Professor Babin, commenting on this Court’s decision, pointed out that “the European Court separately, with obvious respect, emphasized the nationality of Ms. Bezaziyeva, and even named her place of residence in double transcription, “Dzhankoy (Canköy)”.
The lawyer representing Bezazieva was Jessica Gavron, a citizen and barrister in the UK and co-chair of the Manchester EHRAC.
In the described judgment, the European Court, among other things, did not see an abuse of freedom of speech in the call to kill Russian soldiers who invaded Ukraine, as well as their political leadership, as well as in the publication of a swastika with the purpose of comparing it with current Russian Nazis.
The European Court also separately pointed out the pathological hatred of Russian punishers and managers for Ukrainian symbols, which is a sign of the genocidal intentions of the Kremlin.
In addition, in this decision, examining the cases of Kosareva and Bezaziyeva described above, the European Court once again confirmed its findings from last year on the lack of access to justice in occupied Crimea. The Ukrainian government participated in this case 11884/22 as a third party and provided relevant comments.
