Exclusion of aliens for national security reasons without the documents being presented to the courts
JUDGMENT
Gaspar v. Russia 12.6.2018 (no. . 23038/15)
Zezev v. Ρωσία (no. 47781/10)
SUMMARY
Non-renewal of residence permits and expulsion of aliens, considering the existence of a risk to national security. Failure to examine security reports as they were kept secret during the court hearing. Violation of Article 8 (right to respect for private and family life) of the European Convention on Human Rights due to interruption of family life.
PROVISION
Article 8
PRINCIPAL FACTS
Both cases concerned the exclusion of foreign nationals from Russia on national security grounds.
The first applicant, Jennifer Suzanne Gaspar, is an American national who was born in 1971 and now lives in Prague (the Czech Republic). She lived in Russia from 2004 to 2014 on the basis of regularly extended residence permits, marrying a Russian national and having a daughter with him. However, on applying for Russian citizenship in 2013, a report was issued about her by the security services finding that she posed a threat to national security and recommending that the migration authorities reject her application and revoke her residence permit. The migration authorities followed these recommendations and informed Ms Gaspar that she had to leave the country, which she did on 23 August 2014. She brought two sets of proceedings attempting to obtain a judicial review of the decision to revoke her residence permit, without success.
The second applicant, Aleksandr Zezev, is a Kazakh national who was born in 1979 and apparently now lives in Kazakhstan. He moved to Russia in 2005 to live with his parents and brother, who are Russian nationals, living there on the basis of visas and temporary residence permits. He later married a Russian national and had two children with her. In 2009 the migration authorities also rejected his application for Russian nationality owing to a report by the security services which found that he was a threat to national security. He was asked to leave, but continued to reside in the country until he was eventually detained and deported in 2013, all his appeals before the courts against the exclusion order having been rejected.
Relying in particular on Article 8 (right to respect for private and family life) of the European Convention on Human Rights, the applicants complained of a disruption to their family life because of being forced to leave Russia. They both stressed in particular that they could not refute the security services’ reports which had been used to exclude them because the documents had been kept secret during the judicial review of their cases.
THE DECISION OF THE COURT
– case of Gaspar:
Violation of Article 8
Just satisfaction: 12,500 euros (EUR) (non-pecuniary damage) and EUR 1,642 (costs and expenses)
– case of Zezev:
Violation of Article 8
Just satisfaction: EUR 12,500 (non-pecuniary damage) to be paid to Ms M.K., Mr Zezev’s wife(echrcaselaw.com editing).
