Before the rally on March 26, 2017, I promised that we would file an application with the ECHR (European Court of Human Rights) for every detainee and reimburse their fines.
Now this has become routine work after every rally.
Several organizations and lawyers are handling these complaints from people unlawfully detained at rallies; here’s what “our share” looks like:
So far, 1,170 fines totaling 20,819,572 rubles have been paid (about 20.8 million rubles), and we still have about 1 million rubles more in fines to cover. Thank you to everyone taking part in the fundraising campaigns to pay these fines.
In 2017, based on the hotline’s work during the March 26, June 12, and October 7 protests, 183 applications were sent to the ECHR, 121 of which have already been communicated by the court.
In 2018 (mainly concerning the October 7, January 28, and May 5 protests), we prepared and sent 224 applications to the ECHR; 197 of them have already passed the formal admissibility check and been accepted with case numbers assigned.
A first substantive ruling from the ECHR often takes years, but we have already received notices of communication for 30 applications submitted in 2018.
And in 2019, ACF’s lawyers had already sent 105 applications (mainly related to the May 5 and September 9 protests); appeals are currently underway, and additional documents are still being mailed to us.
In total, 512 applications have been sent to the ECHR, 59 are still being prepared, and documents continue to arrive by mail.
The lawyers even organize special ECHR days, when they work on nothing but these applications.
The 151 applications already communicated are the result of long, painstaking collective work.
We also work with other organizations; in particular, the great team at Agora is handling the cases of campaign office coordinators and activists in a number of regions.
So yes, we keep our promises!
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