Постановление Европейского суда по правам человека от 29.01.2009 «Дело Малтабарь и Малтабарь (Maltabar and Maltabar) против России» [англ.]

Court notes that the parties submitted different accounts of the conditions of the applicants' transport to the courthouse and their stay there. In particular, they disagreed on the number, duration and dates of these journeys, the passenger capacity of the prison vans, the number of prisoners travelling with the applicants, the dimensions of the cells in the courthouses and the number of detainees kept there at the same time as the applicants (see paragraphs 55 - 60).
93. Nevertheless, the parties' submissions on the number of journeys in the prison van did not diverge substantially. The applicants stated that they had both travelled on eleven occasions (see paragraph 56), whereas according to the documents submitted by the Government the first and second applicants travelled ten and nine times respectively (see paragraph 58).
94. The Court has previously found a violation of Article 3 of the Convention in a Russian case where the applicant was transported in an overcrowded prison van (see Khudoyorov, cited above, §§ 112 - 20); however, the applicant in that case was transported in the van no fewer than 200 times in four years of detention. In the instant case the applicants were taken to various courts eleven times at the most, with the bulk of such trips taking place only once or twice a month.
95. Furthermore, in the present case it cannot be established "beyond reasonable doubt" that the ventilation, lighting or sanitary conditions in the court cells or prison vans, the overall daily duration of transportation and the catering arrangements were unacceptable from the standpoint of Article 3; nor is it possible to contest the information produced by the Government with respect to access to toilet facilities (see paragraphs 57 and 60).
96. The Court reiterates that it must be satisfied, on the basis of the materials before it, that the conditions of the applicants' detention constituted treatment which exceeded the minimum threshold for Article 3 of the Convention to apply. In that connection, it notes that the applicants' allegations about the overcrowding of prison vans and court cells have not been sufficiently substantiated. In fact, nothing in the case file or the documents submitted by the parties confirms them either in whole or in part. The applicants neither raised their grievances in this respect before any of the competent domestic authorities, including the prison administration, so as to able to furnish the Court with their answers in this respect (ibid.), nor submitted statements or the names of their fellow inmates who could confirm their allegations (compare Starokadomskiy v. Russia, No. 42239/02, § 56, 31 July 2008, and Vlasov v. Russia, No. 78146/01, § 67, 12 June 2008). Thus, the crucial evidence which could have supported their claims is missing. Furthermore, the Court has no reason to doubt the Government's intentions in so far as they did not furnish it with data concerning the number of detainees transported with the applicants during the relevant period of time. The archived documents containing that information were destroyed due to the expiry of the storage time-limits on 11 August 2005, that is, a few months before 4 November 2005, which is the date on which the case was communicated to the respondent Government. Thus, the Court does not find it necessary to draw any negative inferences from their conduct. It should also be noted that the Government and the relevant prison authority consistently denied all of the applicants' factual allegations in this respect and seem to have provided the Court with all information that remained available, such as pictures of the inside and outside of prison vans, dimensions of the court cells, dates of journeys and statements of participating officials (see paragraphs 57 - 60).
97. Given the above considerations, the Court concludes that it has not been established "beyond reasonable

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