On June 6, the ECtHR will consider the case of the poisoning of Alexei Navalny

On June 6, the ECtHR will consider the case of the poisoning of Alexei Navalny

The European Court of Human Rights has scheduled the first court hearing in the case of the poisoning of opposition politician Alexei Navalny for June 6. Navalny complained to the ECHR about the inaction of the Russian authorities. He and his associates repeatedly appealed to the Investigative Committee of Russia with a request to conduct an investigation, but were refused.

The court sets itself the task of finding out whether Navalny’s right to life was violated, and whether all opportunities to achieve justice in his country were exhausted.

The ECtHR does not investigate the merits of the case, it makes decisions only about the legality of actions or inaction of law enforcement agencies.

  • One of the most famous Russian opposition politicians, Alexey Navalny, lost consciousness on August 20, 2020, on a flight from Tomsk to Moscow. After the emergency landing in Omsk, he was hospitalized in the intensive care unit. A few days later, Navalny’s family and associates managed to get him transferred to the Charite clinic in Berlin for treatment. German doctors found in his blood the poison “Novichok”, which belongs to chemical weapons. Then this conclusion was confirmed by several laboratories licensed by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. The Russian side denies possible poisoning of Navalny.
  • In December 2020, Bellingcat, The Insider, CNN, and Der Spiegel published an investigation that stated that Alexei Navalny was poisoned with “Novichok” by a special group of FSB employees who had been following him for several years. The investigators managed to establish the names of the executors and responsible persons. Demands to bring them to responsibility were ignored by the Investigative Committee.
  • In March 2022, shortly after the invasion of Ukraine, Russia was expelled from the Council of Europe. On September 16, it officially ceased to be a party to the European Convention on Human Rights and no longer implements the decisions of the ECHR.



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