The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) delivered a judgment concerning five applications against Ukraine regarding excessive length of criminal proceedings and lack of effective remedies. The Court found violations of Article 6 § 1 (right to a fair trial) and Article 13 (right to an effective remedy) of the Convention in all cases.The Court examined five separate cases jointly due to their similar subject matter. The proceedings in these cases lasted from approximately 6 to 15 years, which the Court found to be excessive and incompatible with the ‘reasonable time’ requirement. The longest proceeding was in the case of Semenenko, lasting more than 15 years, while the shortest was Kuznetsov’s case, lasting about 6 years.The Court assessed the reasonableness of the proceedings’ length based on established criteria: the complexity of the case, the conduct of the applicants and relevant authorities, and what was at stake for the applicants. Following its previous case-law, particularly the Nechay v. Ukraine case, the Court found no justification for such lengthy proceedings.The key provisions of the judgment include:
- The Court’s finding that Ukraine violated both Article 6 § 1 and Article 13 of the Convention
- The award of compensation ranging from 500 to 6,000 euros for non-pecuniary damage
- The requirement for Ukraine to pay the awarded amounts within three months
- The provision for interest payment in case of delayed settlement at the rate equal to the marginal lending rate of the European Central Bank plus three percentage points
