EHCR May Take Several Years To Evaluate Moscow's Case Against Kiev - Russian Envoy

PARIS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 22nd July, 2021) The legal considerations of Russia's interstate complaint against Ukraine in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) may take several years, Ivan Soltanovsky, Russia's permanent representative to the Council of Europe, said on Thursday.

Earlier in the day, Russia filed its first inter-state complaint with the ECHR in Strasbourg against Ukraine. In the document focusing on events that followed the 2014 change of power in Ukraine, the Russian Prosecutor General's Office accuses Kiev of violating the European Convention on Human Rights.

"The history of the ECHR considerations of interstate cases shows that it is extremely difficult to answer this question [how long it will take]. In the past, it took many years to consider such complaints," Soltanovsky said.

However, he noted that the current ECHR president, Robert Spano, intended to significantly reduce the time spent on such cases.

"The consideration of any interstate complaint procedurally requires a preliminary decision on the admissibility of the complaint and a subsequent ruling on its merits. At each of these stages, the court usually holds public hearings. In some cases, an additional decision of the court is required on the issue of compensation. Taking this into account, in our opinion, the process may take several years," the envoy said.

Russia's ECHR complaint accuses Kiev of civilian deaths, arbitrary imprisonment and ill treatment of people during events at Independence Square in Kiev, the 2014 massacre at the Trade Unions House in Odessa, as well as during the ongoing hostilities in the Donbas region. It also raises issues of discrimination against ethnic and linguistic minorities in Ukraine, including bans on or restricted access to Russian-language broadcasters and media.