European Court of Human Rights upholds ruling against Ukraine in Lutsenko case

The European Court of Human Rights’ Grand Chamber has rejected the appeal lodged by the Ukrainian government against the Court’s judgement on 3 July 2012.   According to Valentina Telychenko, one of Lutsenko’s lawyers, this means that the judgement has now come into force.

The Court in Strasbourg held a public hearing into the case on 17 April this year.  It can be followed here.

http://echr.coe.int/ECHR/EN/Header/Press/Multimedia/Webcasts+of+public+hearings/webcastEN_media?id=20120417-1&lang=en&flow=high

Its judgement was announced on 3 July.  The Court “held unanimously, that there had been: two violations of Article 5 § 1 (right to liberty and security) of the European Convention on Human Rights on account of Mr Lutsenko’s arrest and ensuing detention; a violation of Article 5 § 2 (right to be informed of the reasons for one’s arrest); two violations of Article 5 § 3 (right to be brought promptly before a judge) on account of both his arrest and his pre-trial detention; a violation of Article 5 § 4 (right to challenge the lawfulness of one’s detention); and a violation of Article 18 (limitation on use of restrictions on rights) in conjunction with Article 5.

The case concerned the complaint by a well-known opposition politician that his arrest and the decision on his detention were arbitrary and unlawful, and that he was not informed about the reasons for his arrest.

The Court held in particular: that Mr Lutsenko’s arrest had been arbitrary; that no valid reasons had been given for his detention; that he had not been duly informed of the reasons for his detention; and, that the lawfulness of his arrest and detention had not been properly reviewed.

The Court also found that, given that the prosecutors had referred to Mr Lutsenko’s communication with the media as one of the reasons for his arrest, his right to liberty had been restricted for other reasons than those permissible under Article 5.”

The judgement in full can be read here: #{"itemid":["001-112013"]}

It is perhaps not surprising that the Ministry of Justice which informed this week of its website additions, including  ECHR judgements involving Ukraine, has cases later than that of Yury Lutsenko’s and omits his.