ECtHR - Gaspar v. Russia (application no. 23038/15) and Zezev v. Russia (application no. 47781/10) [violation of Article 8 ECHR], 12 June 2018

Date: 
Tuesday, June 12, 2018

On 12 June 2018, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) ruled in cases Zezev v. Russia (application no. 47781/10) and Gaspar v. Russia (application no. 23038/15), which concerns, respectively, the removal of a Kazakh and an American national from Russia on national security grounds. Relying on Article 8 ECHR, the applicants complained that the order to leave the Russian territory disrupted their family life and that they were unable to refute the security services’ reports which had been used in the decisions to remove them as these were kept secret during the judicial review of their cases.
 
The ECtHR ruled that the domestic courts confined the scope of their examination to ascertaining that the recommendation of the Federal Security Service had been issued within its administrative competence, without carrying out an independent review of whether their conclusion had a reasonable basis in fact.
 
Furthermore, the applicants’ representatives were shown neither those confidential materials, nor edited versions of them. The undisclosed nature of the allegations against the applicants made it impossible for them to challenge the security services’ assertions by providing exonerating evidence, such as an alibi or an alternative explanation. Therefore, the ECtHR found that the domestic court proceedings concerning the examination of the decision to revoke the applicants’ residence permits – and the effects it had on the family life of the applicants in both cases – were not attended by sufficient procedural guarantees, in violation of Article 8 ECHR.

 

This item was reproduced with the permission of ECRE from the weekly ELENA legal update. The purpose of these updates is to inform asylum lawyers and legal organizations supporting asylum seekers and refugees of recent developments in the field of asylum law. Please note that the information provided is taken from publicly available information on the internet. Every reasonable effort is made to make the content accurate and up to date at the time each item is published but no responsibility for its accuracy and correctness, or for any consequences of relying on it, is assumed by ECRE. 

Keywords: 
Family unity (right to)