EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS
FIFTH SECTION
CASE OF MOKHOV v. RUSSIA
(Application No. 28245/04)
JUDGMENT <*>
(Strasbourg, 4.III.2010)
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<*> This judgment will become final in the circumstances set out in Article 44 § 2 of the Convention. It may be subject to editorial revision.
In the case of Mokhov v. Russia,
The European Court of Human Rights (Fifth Section), sitting as a Chamber composed of:
Peer Lorenzen, President,
Karel Jungwiert,
Rait Maruste,
Anatoly Kovler,
Mark Villiger,
Mirjana Lazarova Trajkovska,
Zdravka Kalaydjieva, judges,
and Claudia Westerdiek, Section Registrar,
Having deliberated in private on 9 February 2010,
Delivers the following judgment, which was adopted on that date:
PROCEDURE
1. The case originated in an application (No. 28245/04) 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 Aleksey Vladimirovich Mokhov ("the applicant"), on 6 July 2004.
2. The applicant, who had been granted legal aid, was represented by Mr P.A. Finogenov, a lawyer practising in Moscow. The Russian Government ("the Government") were represented by Mr G. Matyushkin, Representative of the Russian Federation at the European Court of Human Rights.
3. On 1 September 2008 the President of the Fifth Section decided to give notice of the application to the Government. It was also decided to examine the merits of the application at the same time as its admissibility (Article 29 § 3).
THE FACTS
I. The circumstances of the case
4. The applicant was born in 1972 and lives in Kostroma. He is currently serving a sentence in correctional facility ZhKh-385/5 in the village of Lepley, Mordoviya.
5. On an unspecified date criminal proceedings were instituted against the applicant on charges of abuse of powers by a public official, aggravated bribery and forgery.
6. On 8 April 2000 the applicant was arrested and placed in custody on suspicion of aggravated murder and robbery.
7. On 18 April 2000 the applicant was officially charged with aggravated murder and robbery.
8. On 9 December 2000 the applicant was convicted of abuse of powers, aggravated bribery and forgery and sentenced to five years' imprisonment.
9. On 15 and 18 January 2001, whilst the pre-trial investigation into the murder and robbery was pending, the State local television company, KTRK, broadcast the Na grani ("On the Edge") programme which contained an interview with Mr T., an investigator from the prosecutor's office of the Kostroma Region ("the prosecutor's office"), who informed the public that the applicant had committed a series of offences. In particular, he stated that:
"The murder was committed while the investigation into bribery and abuse of power [with which the applicant had been charged] had been pending for a sufficiently long time and it was possible to refer the case to a court. And we found out that Mokhov had committed a second, more serious, crime - a murder, connected to the robbery and attack."
10. On 26 January 2001 the applicant lodged a civil claim against the prosecutor's office and KTRK. Referring to Article 49 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation, he sought compensation for non-pecuniary damage resulting from the alleged violation of the presumption of innocence.
11. On 13 June 2001 the Leninskiy District Court of Kostroma ("the district court") held a hearing in the applicant
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