Discrimination in punishments in the light of the ECHR
JUDGMENT
Aleksandr Aleksandrov v. Russia 27.03.2018 (no. 14431/06)
SUMMARY
Kicking a police officer and sentencing of the applicant. He was imprisoned on the grounds that he had no permanent residence. Infringement of the prohibition of discrimination in connection with the right to liberty and security.
PROVISIONS
Article 5
Article 14
PRINCIPAL FACTS
The applicant, Aleksandr Aleksandrov, is a Russian national who was born in 1983 and lives in Cheboksary (Russia).
The case concerned his prison sentence for kicking a police officer.
In 2005 Mr Aleksandrov was found guilty of a drunken assault on a police officer and sentenced to one year’s imprisonment. The trial court refused to impose a non-custodial sentence because, among other things, he had no permanent residence within the Moscow Region where the offence had been committed and the sentence pronounced. Mr Aleksandrov appealed, unsuccessfully.
Relying on Article 14 (prohibition of discrimination) of the European Convention on Human Rights, Mr Aleksandrov alleged that the only reason he had been given a custodial sentence had been because he had not had a permanent place of residence in the region in which he had been tried and that this had been discriminatory. The case was also examined under Article 5 (right to liberty and security).
THE DECISION OF THE COURT
Violation of Article 14 taken in conjunction with Article 5
Just satisfaction: 10,000 euros (EUR) (non-pecuniary damage)(echrcaselaw.com editing).
