Week-ending 24 September 2021
This week the European Court of Human Rights handed down one judgment in relation to Russia. This was in the high profile case of Carter v. Russia concerning the 2006 murder by polonium radiation poisoning of Aleksandr Litvinenko. The Court found Russia failed to comply with its obligations under Convention Article 38 (compliance with procedural obligations) and violated Convention Article 2 (right to life) in its substantive and procedural limbs.
CARTER v. RUSSIA, 21 September 2021
Art 2 (substantive) • Life • Poisoning and assassination of a Russian defector and dissident in the United Kingdom by two persons acting as agents of Russia • Administration of poison amounting to the exercise of physical power and control over the man’s life in a situation of proximate targeting
Art 2 (procedural) • Domestic authorities’ failure to conduct an effective investigation into the death
Art 38 • State’s failure to comply with its procedural obligation on account of unjustified refusal to submit the material requested by the Court
The respondent Government failed to comply with their obligations under Article 38 of the Convention; a violation of Article 2 of the Convention under the substantive and procedural limbs and rejects the Government’s objection of inadmissibility ratione loci; the respondent State is to pay the applicant, within three months from the date on which the judgment becomes final in accordance with Article 44 § 2 of the Convention, the following amounts: (i) EUR 100,000 (one hundred thousand euros), plus any tax that may be chargeable, in respect of non-pecuniary damage; (ii) EUR 22,500 (twenty-two thousand five hundred euros), plus any tax that may be chargeable to the applicant, in respect of costs and expenses.
See also:
The Guardian, 21 September 2021: The European court of human rights has ruled that Russia was responsible for the 2006 murder by radiation poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko in London .