CILEI AND ROSIP v. THE REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA AND RUSSIA

• Judgment Date: 13 July 2021
• ECLI: ECLI:CE:ECHR:2021:0713JUD004814510
• Date: 13 July 2021
• Application Number: 48145/10;8387/15
• Counsel: POSTICĂ A. ; CAZACU P.
• Court: Second Section Committee (European Court of Human Rights)
• Applied Rules: 3;5;5-1;13;P1-1;P1-1-1

SECOND SECTION

CASE OF CILEI AND ROSIP v. THE REPUBLIC OF MOLDOVA AND RUSSIA

(Applications nos. 48145/10 and 8387/15)

JUDGMENT

STRASBOURG

13 July 2021

This judgment is final but it may be subject to editorial revision.

In the case of Cilei and Rosip v. the Republic of Moldova and Russia,

The European Court of Human Rights (Second Section), sitting as a Committee composed of:

Carlo Ranzoni, President,
Egidijus Kūris,
Pauliine Koskelo, judges,
and Hasan Bakırcı, Deputy Section Registrar,

Having regard to:

the applications (nos. 48145/10 and 8387/15) against the Republic of Moldova and Russia lodged with the Court under Article 34 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (“the Convention”) by two Moldovan nationals, Mr Alexandr Cilei and Mr Ivan Rosip (“the applicants”), on 11 August 2010 and 3 February 2015, respectively;

the decision to give notice to the Moldovan and Russian Governments (“the Governments”) of the application no. 8387/15, and of the complaints concerning unlawful detention in application no. 48145/10 and to declare inadmissible the remainder of this application;

the Russian Government’s objection to the examination of the application by a Committee and to the Court’s decision to reject it;

the parties’ observations;

Having deliberated in private on 22 June 2021,

Delivers the following judgment, which was adopted on that date:

INTRODUCTION

1. The case concerns the applicants’ arrest and detention in the Transdniestrian region of Moldova (the self-proclaimed “Moldovan Republic of Transdniestria” (the “MRT”) – see for more details Ilaşcu and Others v. Moldova and Russia [GC], no. 48787/99, §§ 28-185, ECHR 2004-II and Catan and Others v. the Republic of Moldova and Russia [GC], nos. 43370/04 and 2 others, §§ 8-42, ECHR 2012 (extracts)). They both complained about their unlawful detention, while the second applicant also complained about inhuman conditions of detention, unlawful seizure of his property and the lack of effective remedies in respect of his other complaints.

1. THE FACTS

2. The applicants were born in 1976 and 1958 and live in Tiraspol and Bender, respectively. The applicants were represented by Mr A. Postică and Mr P. Cazacu, lawyers practising in Chișinău.

3. The Governments were represented by their Agents.

4. The facts of the case, as submitted by the parties, may be summarised as follows.

1. Application no 48145/10

5. On 30 January 2008 the first applicant was arrested by the “MRT” authorities on charges of attempted murder. On 5 June 2009 he was convicted by the “MRT” courts and sentenced to eleven years’ imprisonment.

6. The applicant sought the annulment of his conviction before the Supreme Court of Justice of the Republic of Moldova. By a letter of 10 May 2010, the Supreme Court of Justice returned his extraordinary appeal without examination, citing the absence of competence to examine judgments delivered by the “MRT” courts.

7. On 1 August 2012 the applicant was released from detention after being pardoned by the president of the “MRT”.

2. Application no 8387/15

8. The second applicant was the founder and the director of a company in the “MRT”. On 20 December 2012 he was arrested by the “MRT” authorities on charges of misappropriating funds of his business partners. His detention was extended repeatedly.

9. On 24 December 2012 all his personal property (two cars, two golden rings, a golden watch, 159 “MRT” roubles, the share in his company, and two mobile phones) and his company’s property was seized.

10. On 16 June 2014 the applicant was convicted by the “Bender City Court” for abuse of position of trust and sentenced to 1 year and 8 months of imprisonment and a fine of 270 “MRT” roubles. The court also upheld the civil action lodged by two alleged victims and obliged the applicant to pay them 1,899,050 “MRT” roubles. The court further ordered the levy of execution upon the seized personal property of the applicant and the removal of all restriction measures in respect of his company’s property.

11. On 5 August 2014 the “MRT” Supreme Court modified the first‑instance judgment, increasing the amount of the civil award to 2,553,000 “MRT” roubles (equivalent to 212,750 euros (EUR)) and dispensing the applicant from serving the sentence because of the expiry of the statutory limitation period. On the same day the applicant was released from detention.

12. On 6 August 2014 a writ of enforcement was issued to levy execution upon the applicant’s personal property (see paragraph 9). On 26 November 2014, the applicant was informed that in the course of enforcement proceedings an expert had evaluated his personal property to a total of 106,002 “MRT” roubles (equivalent to EUR 8,832).

13. The applicant was held in several detention facilities and often moved for short stretches of time from one to another.

14. From 20 December 2012 to 14 January 2013 he was detained in the temporary detention facility of the Tiraspol police headquarters (IVS Tiraspol), as described by him, in conditions of high humidity, overcrowding, no working ventilation and lack of access to natural light (since the detention facility was in the basement of the building), smoking, wooden bunk beds, no bed linen, unsanitary conditions, scarce and inedible food, cells infested by parasites.

15. From 14 to 22 January 2013 the applicant was held in...