5.  The first applicant (Ms Belan) was born in 1961. The second applicant (Ms Sviderskaya) was born in 1949. They both live in Rostov-on-Don.
6.  On 3 September 2012 the second applicant and Ms T. notified the local authority of their intention to hold a public assembly from 4 to 5 p.m. on 15 September 2012 in Sovetov Square in Rostov-on-Don. They indicated that the assembly would otherwise be held in front of the Lenin monument at the entrance to Gorkiy Park. The first applicant intended to take part in the public event.
7.  On 5 September 2012 the authority suggested that the event should instead be held from 9.30 to 10.30 a.m. in the square in front of the City Library. On 6 September 2012 the event organisers dismissed the suggestion as unsuitable for the purposes of their assembly. On 12 September 2012 the authority insisted on their suggestion and refused to make another one because large-scale festive events were due to take place in the town on the proposed date. Ms T. withdrew her request to hold the planned event.
8.  According to the first applicant, she decided to stage on 15 September 2012 a solo “picket” (одиночный пикет) from 2 to 3 p.m. at the entrance to Gorkiy Park. She chose the format of a solo “picket” because it did not require her to give prior notification to the authorities. At around 2.10 p.m., shortly after she had started, she was approached by police officers who ordered her to stop the “picket” and issued her with a formal warning for a violation of public order. One of the officers asked a passer-by, Mr Z., to hold her banner so that she could sign the warning. The events were recorded on video. At around 2.20 p.m. the applicant and Mr Z. were arrested and taken to a police station. The applicant remained there from 2.30 to 6 p.m. She was then allowed to leave.
9.  According to the second applicant, from 1.30 to 2.45 p.m. on 15 September 2012 she staged a solo demonstration on a street corner opposite Gorkiy Park to protest against construction laws. On her way back home she walked through the park and at around 3 p.m. saw a man holding a banner. She approached him to read the banner, which read “I will not give up my freedom of choice, which is granted by God and the Constitution!”. She was immediately approached by a police officer, who ordered her to show her own banner but she refused. At 3.05 p.m. she was taken to a police station, where she saw the first applicant. According to the second applicant, she spent five hours at the police station (including two hours waiting outside for a copy of the record).
10.  According to the relevant records, the first and second applicants were taken to the police station at 5.20 p.m. and 4.45 p.m. respectively for the purpose of compiling an administrative-offence record. The police station logbook indicated that the first applicant had been brought there at 4.20 p.m. and released at 6.30 p.m., and that the second applicant had been brought there at 4.45 p.m. and released at 6.45 p.m.
11.  At the police station both applicants were accused of organising and holding a public event without giving prior notification to the authorities, in breach of Article 20.2 § 2 of the Code of Administrative Offences (hereinafter “the CAO”). The administrative-offence records indicated that the first applicant had held a public event at 3.45 p.m. and the second applicant at 3.10 p.m., and that both offences had been committed near the Lenin monument at the entrance to Gorkiy Park. The administrative case files contained handwritten reports by the two police officers who had arrested the applicants. Both reports contained descriptions of the applicants’ acts substantially similar to those contained in the administrative-offence records.
12.  On an unspecified date the case was transferred to a justice of the peace of Circuit no. 2 of the Leninskiy District of Rostov-on-Don. The trial court held several hearings. The applicant attended and was assisted by a representative, though it is unclear whether that person was a lawyer.
13.  On 25 September 2012 the trial court held a hearing and heard various witnesses. Ms O. stated that she had seen the applicant standing in front of the entrance to Gorkiy Park with a banner and that a man and a woman had also been “standing on that square” with banners. Mr P. testified that he had wanted “to join the picket” at Gorkiy Park. Mr Z. stated that he had happened to be standing close to the first applicant and had taken her banner at the request of the police so that she could sign some papers.
14.  At the same hearing the trial court dismissed an application by the defence seeking to admit two photographs and a video-recording (apparently showing the events of 15 September 2012) into evidence. The judge stated that it was unclear who had captured the footage and that they contained no indication of when and where they had been taken. However, at the defence’s request, the judge ordered the city police department to release the footage of two street cameras.
15.  On 4 October 2012 the deputy chief of the city police department replied that the footage from one camera had been “saved” and invited the judge to provide an electronic storage device onto which it could be copied. However, on 18 October 2012 the acting head of the duty unit of the city police department informed the judge that the street camera footage could not be released because it had not been archived owing to a failure of the archiving system and “because those city cameras had not been working”.
16.  The trial court summoned police officer A., who had arrested the first applicant, for questioning. At a hearing on 7 November 2012 A. stated that after receiving information from Sh., the chief of police station no. 4 (see paragraph 28 below), he had arrived at Gorkiy Park where he had seen a group of people, including Z., in possession of banners, without having given any prior notification of their public event, and that he also remembered arresting Ms Belan, though he could not remember her face. A. also stated that on 15 September 2012 officers from the regional bureau of forensic examinations (“forensic bureau”) within the regional police department had taken photographs of what appeared to be a public assembly.
17.  On 7 November 2012 the trial court also allowed the examination of videos submitted by officers of police station no. 4 containing two clips relating to the events on 15 September 2012. One showed the applicant with a banner, while the other showed her reading a piece of paper and Mr Z. standing close to her and holding a banner above his head. The trial court later declared those clips inadmissible evidence. The trial court also granted a request by the defence for the forensic bureau to provide the photographs taken on 15 September 2012. The hearing was then adjourned.
18.  On 12 November 2012 the chief of the city police department replied to that request, indicating that no photographs or video recordings had been taken on 15 September 2012 in front of the entrance to Gorkiy Park. It is unclear whether the forensic bureau was within that official’s purview.
19.  In the meantime, on 9 November 2012 the same justice of the peace convicted the second applicant in separate proceedings dealing with the same events (see paragraph 28 below).
20.  On 13 November 2012 the trial court convicted the applicant under Article 20.2 § 2 of the CAO and issued him with a fine of 20,000 Russian roubles (RUB – about 497 euros (EUR) at the time). The court based its findings on the statements of the witnesses O., P. and Z. and officer A.’s testimony. The court found it established that on 15 September 2012 a group of people with banners had held a public event in front of the entrance to Gorkiy Park, without having given prior notification to the authorities, and that the applicant had participated in that event.
21.  The applicant lodged an appeal with the Leninskiy District Court of Rostov-on-Don, arguing that the Public Events Act (hereinafter “the PEA”) conferred on the regional authorities the power to determine the minimum distance between solo demonstrations. As no such specification had been made in the Rostov region, there was no legal justification for not treating people standing at even a short distance from each other as solo demonstrators or, by implication, for treating them as a public assembly.
22.  It appears that the appellate court heard further evidence from the witness O., who stated that around 3 p.m. on 15 September 2012 she had approached the Lenin monument with the intention of expressing her views on the situation in the country; she had seen the applicant standing alone with a banner close to the monument. O. had positioned herself at a distance, closer to the city administration building. The applicant had then been approached by two police officers and had handed over her banner to a passer-by while signing a document, before being taken away. O. had also seen two other people standing with banners at a distance.
23.  It also appears that the appellate court watched a video-recording at the applicant’s request, although its origin is unclear. It is also unclear whether this was one of the videos sought to be admitted into evidence at the trial.
24.  On 3 December 2012 the District Court dismissed the applicant’s appeal. It dismissed O.’s testimony as unconvincing and complicit, noting that she had participated in the same event and was an acquaintance of the applicant. With regard to the above-mentioned video-recording, the court observed as follows:
“As regards the video examined at the hearing ... it shows [the applicant] holding a banner. It also shows different people. The video-recording was done without zoom so it is not possible to conclude whether [the applicant] was holding a demonstration alone or whether there were other participants. In any event, earlier other people were convicted of the same offence at the same time and place. This refutes [the applicant’s] argument about her solo demonstration.”
25.  On 4 December 2012 the applicant lodged a complaint with the Rostov regional prosecutor’s office, seeking the institution of criminal proceedings against the police officers under Articles 149 and 286 of the Criminal Code (unlawful impediment to a public assembly and abuse of powers). She alleged that the termination of her solo demonstration and her arrest by the police had been unlawful. By a letter of 9 January 2013 the regional prosecutor’s office replied that the decisions of 13 November and 3 December 2012 were not amenable to appeal.
26.  On 28 December 2012 the justice of the peace granted permission to the applicant to pay the administrative fine of RUB 20,000 in three instalments.
27.  On 6 March and 20 May 2013 the deputy president of the Rostov Regional Court upheld the decisions of 13 November and 3 December 2012. The applicant did not apply for a further review of those court decisions before the Supreme Court of Russia.
28.  On 9 November 2012 the same justice of the peace convicted the second applicant under Article 20.2 of the CAO for holding a public assembly without giving prior notice to the authorities. The court heard several witnesses, including two defence witnesses and the two police officers who had arrested her. Officer Sh. stated (see paragraph 16 above) that there had initially been four solo demonstrators but they had later started to gather together. The applicant had been walking amongst them and had put down her banner when she had been told by the police that she was conducting herself in an unlawful manner; subsequently, the four demonstrators had positioned themselves in pairs.
29.  The justice of the peace found that the applicant had held a group public event together with three other participants and concluded that in the circumstances of the case it was appropriate to issue her with the minimum statutory fine of RUB 20,000.
30.  The applicant appealed. On 6 December 2012 the Leninskiy District Court of Rostov-on-Don examined her appeal and upheld the earlier judgment.
31.  On 10 December 2012 the second applicant lodged a complaint with the Rostov regional prosecutor’s office, similar to that lodged by the first applicant (see paragraph 25 above). The second applicant alleged that she had been placed under administrative arrest, which had been unlawful because no written record of it had been made by the police. On 9 January 2013 the regional prosecutor’s office replied that the decisions of 9 November and 6 December 2012 were not amenable to appeal.
32.  By a decision of 26 December 2012 the justice of the peace allowed the applicant to pay the administrative fine in three monthly instalments (two instalments of RUB 7,000 and one of RUB 6,000). This was the best possible solution under Article 31.5 of the CAO. The court took note of the fact that the applicant received an old-age pension of RUB 5,561 (EUR 138 at the time) per month. It was not specified whether she had any other income.
33.  In the meantime, the second applicant applied for a supervisory review of the decisions of 9 November and 6 December 2012, arguing, inter alia, that she was in a precarious financial situation. She asked for the fine to be reduced to below the statutory minimum, in accordance with a ruling of the Russian Constitutional Court made on 14 February 2013. On 6 March and 29 May 2013 the deputy president of the Rostov Regional Court upheld the judgments, stating, in particular, that the amount of fine was “within the scope of the statutory requirement”. On 10 January 2014 the Supreme Court of Russia also upheld the judgments.