In an interim resolution adopted on Thursday 10 June, the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers “strongly urged” the Russian authorities to immediately release Alexei Navalny, overturn his conviction and that of his brother Oleg in the so-called “Yves Rocher” case, and reimburse the applicants for the fine and the amount of civil damages that they have paid.
Responsible for supervising the execution of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights, the Committee of Ministers uses interim resolutions to “overcome more complex situations requiring special attention”.
It noted that in its judgment, the Court had described the Russian judicial decisions as “arbitrary, unforeseeable, and manifestly unreasonable” and concluded that they had violated both the principle of “no crime or punishment without law” and the right to a fair trial.
The Committee of Ministers also discussed the execution of judgments in three other ‘Navalny’ cases. These judgments denounced, among other things, the ulterior purpose of “suppressing political pluralism” in Russia, in violation of the Article 18 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
The Committee of Ministers will resume considering the implementation of the Yves Rocher judgment in September 2021.
Link to the Interim Resolution: https://bit.ly/3iz59ip (Original version i French by Véronique Leblanc)