A. General conditions of detention
1. Submissions by the parties
55. The applicants claimed that the conditions of their detention in overcrowded cells, with a lack of space and poor heating and ventilation, had caused them mental and physical suffering and amounted to ill-treatment.
56. The Government contended that the conditions of the applicants' detention in detention centre IZ-25/1 had been compatible with the requirements of Article 3. The Government acknowledged that at the material time the detention centre had been overcrowded, but pointed out that the State authorities had had no intention of subjecting the applicants to ill-treatment.
2. The Court's assessment
(a) Admissibility
57. The Court notes that this complaint is not manifestly ill-founded within the meaning of Article 35 § 3 of the Convention. It further notes that it is not inadmissible on any other grounds. It must therefore be declared admissible.
(b) Merits
58. The Court observes that detention centre No. IZ-25/1 was severely overcrowded during the entire period of the applicants' detention. Each cell where the applicants had been placed during their detention was of the same size, with a height of 2.6 m and a surface area of 7.5 sq. m according to the applicants, and a height of 2.8 m and a surface area of 8 sq. m according to the Government. Given the number of bunk beds, they were designed for four persons, according to the Government (see paragraph 35 above). According to the applicants, the cells actually held from four up to seven inmates (see paragraph 27 above). The Government acknowledged that at the material time the detention centre had been overcrowded owing to the high level of crime and the centre's low capacity and that the number of persons detained together with the applicants had therefore exceeded the required standard (see paragraph 35 above). The above numbers suggest that at any given time there was less then 2 sq. m of space per inmate in the applicants' cells and that they did not always have a separate bed. Save for 30 to 40 minutes of daily outdoor walks, according to the applicants, or one hour, according to the Government, the applicants were confined to their cells all the time.
59. The Court reiterates that in a number of cases the lack of personal space afforded to detainees in Russian remand prisons has been found to be so extreme as to justify, in its own right, a finding of a violation of Article 3 of the Convention. In those cases applicants had usually had less than 3 sq. m. of personal space (see, for example, Lind v. Russia, No. 25664/05, § 59, 6 December 2007; Kantyrev v. Russia, No. 37213/02, §§ 50 - 51, 21 June 2007; Andrey Frolov v. Russia, No. 205/02, §§ 47 - 49, 29 March 2007; Mayzit v. Russia, No. 63378/00, § 40, 20 January 2005; and Labzov v. Russia, No. 62208/00, § 44, 16 June 2005).
60. Having regard to its case-law on the subject and the material submitted by the parties, the Court notes that the Government have not put forward any fact or argument capable of persuading it to reach a different conclusion in the present case. For more than thirteen months the applicants were obliged to live, sleep and use the toilet in such crammed conditions that the lack of space itself was sufficient to cause distress or hardship of an intensity exceeding the unavoidable level of suffering inherent in detention. It follows that the conditions of the applicants' detention amounted to inhuman and degrading treatment.
61. As to the Government's argument that the authorities had no intention of making the applicant suffer, the Court reiterates that although the question whether the purpose of the treatment was to humiliate or debase the victim is a factor to be taken into account, the absence of any such purpose cannot preclude a finding
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