The case originated in an application (no. 926/08) against the Russian Federation lodged with the Court under Article 34 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (“the Convention”) by a Russian national, Mr Mikhail Yuryevich Karelin (“the applicant”), on 19 November 2007.The Russian Government (“the Government”) were represented by Mr G. Matyushkin, Representative of the Russian Federation to the European Court of Human Rights. On 2 July 2012 the applicant raised a further complaint concerning new unrelated domestic proceedings in 2012 and the absence of a prosecuting party in these proceedings. On 29 January 2014 the complaint concerning the absence of a prosecuting party in the court proceedings in 2012 was communicated to the Government and the remainder of the application, including the initial complaints raised in November 2007, was declared inadmissible.
The Court, unanimously,
1. Declares the complaint under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention admissible;
2. Holds that there has been a violation of Article 6 § 1 of the Convention on account of the impartiality requirement;
3. Holds that it is not necessary to examine separately whether there has been a violation of Article 6 § 1 of the Convention on account of the principle of the equality of arms and the requirement of adversarial procedure;
4. Holds (a) that the respondent State is to pay the applicant, within three months of the date on which the judgment becomes final in accordance with Article 44 § 2 of the Convention, EUR 2,500 (two thousand five hundred euros), plus any tax that may be chargeable, in respect of non-pecuniary damage, to be converted into the currency of the respondent State at the rate applicable at the date of settlement; (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;
5. Dismisses the remainder of the applicant’s claim for just satisfaction.
Translantion from English by Ekaterina Luneva.