CEDH · CASELAW;COMMUNICATEDCASES;ENG — 2 juin 2016

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The application numbers, the dates the applications were lodged, the applicants’ names, their personal details and the names of their legal representatives are set out in the Appendix below. The facts of the cases, as submitted by the applicants, may be summarised as follows. The applicants were convicted in criminal proceedings of drug ‑ related offences. The principal evidence against them came from operational experiments or test purchases conducted in accordance with section 6 of the Operational-Search Activities Act. At their trials the applicants claimed that the offences in question had been committed as a result of entrapment by the authorities. They also alleged the involvement of agents provocateurs . Their allegations were dismissed. The respective judgments, which became final, were issued on the dates and by the courts indicated in the Appendix below. A.     Relevant domestic law and practice, international instruments and comparative law For a summary of relevant domestic law and practice, see Lagutin and Others v.   Russia (nos. 6228/09, 19123/09, 19678/07, 52340/08 and 7451/09, §§ 62-67, 24 April 2014). The Council of Europe’s instruments on the use of special investigative techniques are outlined in Ramanauskas v. Lithuania ([GC], no. 74420/01 , §§ 35-37, ECHR 2008). A comparative analysis of the national systems of authorisation of undercover operations in the Council of Europe member States is summarised in Veselov and Others v. Russia (nos. 23200/10 , 24009/07 and 556/10 , §§ 50-63, 2 October 2012). B.     Relevant Committee of Ministers documents In the framework of the execution of the judgments in Vanyan v. Russia , (no.   53203/99, 15   December   2005), Khudobin v. Russia (no.59696/00, ECHR 2006 ‑ XII (extracts)) and Veselov and Others (cited above) – the “Vanyan” group of cases – on 12 May 2014 the Russian authorities provided an action report on 30 April 2014 (see DH-DD(2014)616 ) and an action plan in the case of Veselov and Others on 23 March 2014 (see DH ‑ DD(2014)485 ). The action report, under the heading “General measures ... concerning the definition of the term of ‘entrapment’ and authorisation of a covert operation by an independent body”, did not contain any submissions about the system of authorisation of covert operations. COMPLAINTS The applicants complain under Article 6 § 1 of the Convention that they were convicted of criminal offences which they claim they only committed because they were incited to do so by an agent provocateur .   QUESTIONS to the parties 1.     Having regard to the principles established in the Court’s judgments concerning police entrapment (see Vanyan v. Russia , no.   53203/99, 15   December   2005; Veselov and Others v. Russia , nos. 23200/10, 24009/07 and 556/10, 2 October 2012; Bannikova v. Russia , no. 18757/06, 14 October 2010; and Lagutin and Others v.   Russia (nos. 6228/09, 19123/09, 19678/07, 52340/08 and 7451/09, §§   89 ‑ 101, 24 April 2014), did each of the applicants have a fair hearing in the determination of the criminal charges against him or her, in accordance with Article 6 § 1 of the Convention?   2.     Do the present cases reveal a continuation of the problem highlighted in the judgments of Veselov and Others and Lagutin and Others (both cited above), in particular the absence of a clear and foreseeable procedure for authorising test purchases and operational experiments? Does this situation amount to a continuing structural problem?     APPENDIX No. Application nos. Lodged on Applicant name Date of birth Place of residence   Represented by Final judgment   66152/14 24/09/2014 Yevgeniya Vitalyevna KUZMINA 30/07/1977 Moscow   Aleksandr Pavlovich ANTONOV Moscow City Court, 28 April 2014     76054/14 10/02/2015 Vladislav Mikhaylovich KHAKHUBIYA 14/09/1984 Lipetsk     Lipetsk Regional Court, 16 September 2014     77426/14 30/04/2015 Vadim Mikhaylovich KOTSUBA 04/02/1983 Kansk, Krasnoyarsk Region     Krasnoyarsk Regional Court, 27 November 2014     15189/15 13/03/2015 Viktor Mikhaylovich PANIN 12/10/1987 Yoshkar-Ola   Irina Vladimirovna KHRUNOVA Moscow City Court, 16 October 2014     23497/15 30/04/2015 Sergey Aleksandrovich KARLASH 19/04/1967 Krasnodar   Irina Vladimirovna KHRUNOVA Krasnodar Regional Court, 5 November 2014     23896/15 06/05/2015 Yaroslav Olegovich YEMLEVSKIY 01/06/1990 Ivanteyevka, Saratov Region     Saratov Regional Court, 18 November 2014     28472/15 25/05/2015 Makhmud Kosimovich YARMUKHAMEDOV 24/03/1975 Kalyazin, Tver Region   Vladislav Yuryevich IVANOV Tver Regional Court, 11 March 2015     29068/15 05/06/2015 Igor Anatolyevich VOYCHALIS 31/03/1981 Novomalorossiyskaya, Krasnodar Region     Krasnodar Regional Court, 18 February 2015   30920/15 19/06/2015 Maksim Aleksandrovich KOSTROMIN 29/12/1988 Toguchin, Novosibirsk Region   Nikita Sergeyevich VOLKOV Novosibirsk Regional Court, 17 April 2015