Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
JUDGMENT
STRASBOURG
22 October 2020
This judgment will become final in the circumstances set out in Article 44 § 2 of the
Convention. It may be subject to editorial revision.
MELNIKOV v. UKRAINE JUDGMENT
INTRODUCTION
1. The applicant complained under Article 3 of the Convention about the
conditions of his detention in the Kyiv pre-trial detention centre (“the Kyiv
SIZO”) and under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention about the length of the
criminal proceedings against him. Furthermore, he complained that there
had been a breach of his rights under Article 7 of the Convention on account
of the failure of the domestic courts to deduct the duration of his pre-trial
detention from the fifteen-year prison sentence imposed on him.
THE FACTS
2. The applicant was born in 1967 and is currently serving a life
sentence.
3. He was granted legal aid and was represented by Mr M. Tarakhkalo,
Ms V. Lebid and Ms I. Boykova, lawyers practising in Kyiv.
4. The Government were represented by their Agent, Mr I. Lishchyna.
1
MELNIKOV v. UKRAINE JUDGMENT
2
MELNIKOV v. UKRAINE JUDGMENT
and six months’ imprisonment and also had his pre-trial detention, starting
from 17 May 2005, set off against the sentence. The remaining two
co-defendants had not been detained as a preventive measure prior to the
judgment pronouncement.
13. The applicant lodged an appeal on points of law, in which he argued,
inter alia, that the duration of his pre-trial detention, since his arrest on
26 June 2002 (see paragraph 7 above) until the pronouncement of the
verdict, should have been deducted from the term of his sentence.
14. On 19 April 2011 the Supreme Court upheld the judgment in
general. It dismissed the above-mentioned argument of the applicant on the
grounds that no custodial preventive measure had been applied to him in
that set of criminal proceedings.
15. On 25 January 2012 the Kyiv City Court delivered its judgment in
case no. 62-2222 (see paragraphs 6, 8 and 9 above), which was 776 pages
long. The court found the applicant guilty of banditry, eleven counts of
murder for profit and numerous counts of kidnapping for ransom, extortion,
robbery, theft, police impersonation and illegal arms possession committed
on various dates between 1997 and 2002. The applicant was sentenced to
life imprisonment. Twelve other persons were also convicted (M. and
O. who had earlier been convicted by the judgment of 21 May 2010 (see
paragraph 12 above) were not among them). It was specified in the
judgment that the applicant’s sentence had started running on 26 June 2002
(see paragraph 7 above).
16. On 23 April 2013 the Higher Specialised Court for Civil and
Criminal Matters (“the Higher Specialised Court”) upheld that judgment.
17. From 26 June 2002 to 27 June 2013 the applicant was detained in the
Kyiv SIZO.
18. He alleged that the conditions of his detention there had been
unacceptable. The applicant referred to a severe lack of personal space
(about 2.5 sq. m per inmate) and poor ventilation. No further factual details
were provided.
19. The Government submitted that they were not in a position to
provide any information about the conditions of the applicant’s detention in
the Kyiv SIZO, given that the relevant documents had been destroyed at the
end of the mandatory five-year storage period.
3
MELNIKOV v. UKRAINE JUDGMENT
THE LAW
I. ALLEGED VIOLATION OF ARTICLE 3 OF THE CONVENTION ON
ACCOUNT OF THE CONDITIONS OF DETENTION IN THE KYIV
SIZO
4
MELNIKOV v. UKRAINE JUDGMENT
32. The applicant also complained that the length of the criminal
proceedings against him had been unreasonable. The relevant part of
Article 6 § 1 of the Convention provides as follows:
5
MELNIKOV v. UKRAINE JUDGMENT
“In the determination of ... any criminal charge against him, everyone is entitled to a
... hearing within a reasonable time by [a] ... tribunal ...”
1. Admissibility
36. The Court notes that this complaint is neither manifestly ill-founded
nor inadmissible on any other grounds listed in Article 35 of the
Convention. It must therefore be declared admissible.
2. Merits
37. The Court does not share the Government’s approach to the
definition of the period to be taken into consideration (see paragraph 33
above). Their reference to 13 May 2005 as the dies a quo lacks any
justification. It is an established fact that on 26 June 2002 the applicant was
arrested in the context of criminal proceedings concerning charges that were
6
MELNIKOV v. UKRAINE JUDGMENT
42. Lastly, the applicant complained that the refusal of the domestic
courts to deduct the duration of his pre-trial detention from the term of his
fifteen-year prison sentence had amounted to a violation of his rights under
Article 7 of the Convention, which reads as follows:
“1. No one shall be held guilty of any criminal offence on account of any act or
omission which did not constitute a criminal offence under national or international
law at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than
the one that was applicable at the time the criminal offence was committed.
7
MELNIKOV v. UKRAINE JUDGMENT
2. This Article shall not prejudice the trial and punishment of any person for any act
or omission which, at the time when it was committed, was criminal according to the
general principles of law recognised by civilised nations.”
43. The Government submitted that the applicant was no longer a victim
given that the term of his pre-trial detention had been duly taken into
account in the proceedings in case no. 62-2222, in which he had been
sentenced to life imprisonment (see paragraph 15 above).
44. The applicant disagreed. He observed that he had been sentenced to
life imprisonment two years after the imposition of the fifteen-year prison
sentence. The applicant emphasised that the fixed-term sentence in question
had been the only one imposed on him during the above-mentioned
two-year period and that the failure to include almost eight years of his
pre-trial detention in the calculation of that sentence had considerably
affected him.
45. The applicant further noted that he would become entitled to apply
for presidential clemency after serving twenty years of his life sentence (that
is, in 2022). In his opinion, the existence of an unserved part of the
fifteen-year sentence when doing so would decrease his chances of
obtaining clemency.
46. The applicant observed that he had been charged with particularly
serious crimes in proceedings no. 49-1205 and that placing him in pre-trial
detention in the context of those proceedings had been mandatory.
However, no such preventive measure had been ordered owing to the fact
that he had already been detained in concomitant proceedings no. 62-2222.
The applicant drew the Court’s attention to the fact that he was the only one
of all the co-accused, in respect of whom the issue of preventive measure
had not been decided in the context of case no. 49-1205 (see paragraph 9
above). According to the applicant, that omission had eventually been used
against him, given that the eight-year period which he had spent in pre-trial
detention had counted towards the life sentence imposed in case
no. 62-2222, whereas it should have counted towards the fifteen-year
sentence imposed in case no. 49-1205. The applicant observed that at the
early stages of the pre-trial investigation all the charges against him had
been covered by one criminal case, no. 62-2222, in the context of which he
had been arrested and detained. He therefore argued that, even though
eventually some charges had been severed into a different case,
no. 49-1205, this did not mean that he had not been detained within that
case.
47. The applicant emphasised that, had his pre-trial detention been
included in his fixed-term sentence, he would have finished serving it in
2017. In reality, however, the sentence would only end in 2025.
Accordingly, the applicant argued that his sentence of fifteen years’
8
MELNIKOV v. UKRAINE JUDGMENT
1. General principles
48. The guarantee enshrined in Article 7 is an essential element of the
rule of law. It should be construed and applied, as follows from its object
and purpose, in such a way as to provide effective safeguards against
arbitrary prosecution, conviction and punishment (see Del Río Prada
v. Spain [GC], no. 42750/09, § 77, ECHR 2013).
49. Article 7 of the Convention is not confined to prohibiting the
retrospective application of criminal law to an accused’s disadvantage. It
also embodies, more generally, the principle that only the law can define a
crime and prescribe a penalty (nullum crimen, nulla poena sine lege). While
it prohibits in particular extending the scope of existing offences to acts
which previously were not criminal offences, it also lays down the principle
that criminal law must not be extensively construed to an accused’s
detriment, for instance by analogy (see Del Río Prada, cited above § 78).
50. It follows that offences and the relevant penalties must be clearly
defined by law (see, among other authorities, Rohlena v. the Czech Republic
[GC], no. 59552/08, § 50, ECHR 2015). The term “law” implies qualitative
requirements, including those of accessibility and foreseeability. These
qualitative requirements must be satisfied as regards both the definition of
an offence and the penalty the offence in question carries. An individual
must know from the wording of the relevant provision and, if need be, with
the assistance of the courts’ interpretation of it what acts and omissions will
make him criminally liable and what penalty will be imposed for the act
committed and/or omission (see Kafkaris v. Cyprus [GC], no. 21906/04,
§ 140, ECHR 2008).
51. The Court’s case-law draws a distinction between a measure that
constitutes in substance a “penalty” and a measure that concerns the
“execution” or “enforcement” of the “penalty”. Article 7 of the
Convention applies only to the former (see Del Río Prada, cited above,
§ 83).
9
MELNIKOV v. UKRAINE JUDGMENT
10
MELNIKOV v. UKRAINE JUDGMENT
his sentence of fifteen years’ imprisonment in case no. 49-1205 had the
effect of increasing the severity of his punishment or, indeed, any practical
effect on his situation.
59. In sum, the Court considers that the applicant has not substantiated
his complaint and rejects it under Article 35 §§ 3 (a) and 4 of the
Convention as being manifestly ill-founded.
A. Damage
64. The applicant also claimed EUR 12,600 for the costs and expenses
incurred before the Court.
65. The Government contested the above claim.
66. According to the Court’s case-law, an applicant is entitled to the
reimbursement of costs and expenses only in so far as it has been shown
that these have been actually and necessarily incurred and are reasonable as
to quantum. Furthermore, costs and expenses are only recoverable to the
extent that they relate to the violation found (see Denisov v. Ukraine [GC],
no. 76639/11, § 146, 25 September 2018). In this regard the Court notes that
only the applicant’s complaint regarding the length of proceedings was
successful (see paragraph 41 above). In such circumstances, and bearing in
mind that one of the applicant’s representative has already been paid
EUR 850 under the Court’s legal aid scheme (see paragraph 3 above), the
Court rejects the applicant’s claim.
11
MELNIKOV v. UKRAINE JUDGMENT
C. Default interest
67. The Court considers it appropriate that the default interest rate
should be based on the marginal lending rate of the European Central Bank,
to which should be added three percentage points.
3. Holds
(a) that the respondent State is to pay the applicant, within three months
from the date on which the judgment becomes final in accordance
with Article 44 § 2 of the Convention, EUR 3,000 (three thousand
euros), plus any tax that may be chargeable, to be converted into the
currency of the respondent State at the rate applicable at the date of
settlement, in respect of non-pecuniary damage;
(b) that from the expiry of the above-mentioned three months until
settlement simple interest shall be payable on the above amount at a
rate equal to the marginal lending rate of the European Central Bank
during the default period plus three percentage points;
12