The European Court of Human Rights issued Chamber judgments in a diverse group of cases this week, finding: Russia responsible for violating, inter alia, article 6.2 (presumption of innocence) for a politician’s public comments about a defendant who had been criminally charged with rape and was pending trial at the time (Kuzmin v. Russia); Moldova responsible for violating article 2 (right to life) in connection with the inadequate investigation into a soldier’s suspicious death in 2001 (Iorga v. Moldova); the United Kingdom responsible for a violating articles 8 (private and family life) and 13 (effective remedy) in connection with a public hospital’s rush to judgment in a situation of suspected child abuse (M.A.K. and R.K. v. the United Kingdom); and, Turkey responsible for a variety of due process and inhumane treatment violations, including the use of a confession obtained through torture and failure to re-examine a key witness who had changed his version of the events (summaries here).
A Chamber hearing was held in the complaint brought against Russia by the owner of oil company YUKOS, in which it is alleged that Russian authorities forced the company’s bankruptcy and sale at auction through harassment (OAO Neftyanaya Kompaniya YUKOS v. Russia).
Additionally, the Grand Chamber decided that Croatia had violated, inter alia, article 14 of the European Convention (discrimination) when it segregated children of Roma origin from other children in public primary schools (Orsus and Others v. Croatia); and that Lithuania had breached its obligations under the European Convention when its Supreme Court refused to hear a sexual harassment complaint by an employee of the Polish embassy on sovereign immunity grounds (Cudak v. Lithuania).