Deprivation of family visits violates the right to family life
JUDGMENT
Vladimir Nikolayevich Fedorov v. Russia (no. 48974/09) 30-5-2017
SUMMARY
Provisional reservation. Right to family life. Detainee. Visite deprivation.
Depriving a detainee from communicating with his relatives throughout his detention violates his or her right to family. The ECtHR found a violation of Article 8 of the ECHR.
PROVISIONS
Article 5 par. 3
Article 8
PRINCIPAL FACTS
The case concerned the remand in custody of the head of the pharmacology department at the medical academy in Yaroslavl.
Vladimir Fedorov, the applicant, was born in 1957 and lives in Yaroslavl. He was remanded in custody from February to September 2009 on suspicion of bribe-taking. The grounds for keeping him in custody over this six-month period were the seriousness of the charges against him and the risk of him interfering with the investigation by putting pressure on witnesses, namely his students, or destroying evidence. As soon as the pre-trial investigation was completed and the charges against him were finalised in September 2009, he was released against an undertaking not to leave his place of residence. He was ultimately convicted of 26 counts of bribe-taking and given a conditional sentence of four years and six months’ imprisonment. He was dismissed from his post at the academy during the proceedings against him.
Relying on Article 5 § 3 (right to liberty and security / entitlement to trial within a reasonable time or to release pending trial), Mr Fedorov alleged that his remand in custody had not been sufficiently justified. He also complained under Article 8 (right to respect for private and family life) that he had been denied the right to see his family throughout his pre-trial detention.
THE DECISION OF THE COURT
No violation of Article 5 § 3
Violation of Article 8
Just satisfaction: EUR 6,000 (non-pecuniary damage).
