Krasnodar journalist complains to ECtHR that customs officers broke his privacy

Yuri Ivaschenko, a photo journalist from Krasnodar, has turned to the Strasbourg Court (European Court of Human Rights - ECtHR) with a complaint that Russia had broken the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), when Sochi customs officer broke his privacy of correspondence.

Let us remind you that in August 2009 Anastasia Denisova, an employee of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial" in the Krasnodar Territory and a member and correspondent of the Youth Human Rights Movement, and photo journalist Yuri Ivaschenko, were interrogated by Russian customs officers and border guards at their entrance to and exit from Abkhazia.

"An employee of the Sochi Customs named Borovikov came up to me wanting to download information from the hard drive of my laptop; and they download 26 Gigabytes. He looked through my correspondence and got into the ICQ. Then, they just started copying data from my laptop to RW disks, that is, the media, where one can make any changes - add or delete any information. They said that they had no other disks. In total, they recorded six RW disks," Yuri Ivaschenko told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

According to the journalist, the process of scrutinizing and copying the information stored in the laptop took about five hours. During all that time he was kept at the border; although no claims or accusations were presented to him.

Yuri Chikov, chairman of the AGORA Inter-Regional Human Rights Organization, believes that examination of Denisova's and Ivaschenko's belongings had to do with the fact that in early 2009 the Prosecutor's Office conducted an audit of the Federal Customs Service and moved a presentation that the latter was poorly combating extremism.

He is also sure that Ivaschenko and Denisov are figurants of "black lists" run by power agencies. "When crossing the border, such persons are specially treated by power agents, who, however, categorically refuse to admit the existence of such lists," said Mr Chikov.

Yuri Ivaschenko learnt about the reason for copying his personal data, including photographs and personal correspondence from a letter he received two weeks after the frontier incident. It informed him that all the copied information was sent to examination whether it contained extremist materials. He decided that his civil rights were violated and filed a complaint to the court about the actions of customs officers.

In early 2010, his complaint was considered by the Prikuban District Court of Krasnodar. According to the official position, presented to the court in six pages, customs officers may read and copy citizens' personal correspondence on the basis of the Decree of Russian President Boris Yeltsin, "On Measures to Ensure Coordinated Actions of State Bodies in Fighting Fascism and other Forms of Political Extremism" of March 23, 1995.

"There is no right with the customs to examine and copy private correspondence," said Marina Dubrovina, photo journalist's advocate. In her opinion, illegal actions of the Sochi customs officers were in copying Yuri's private information. "They have the right to inspect goods, not information," Marina said to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

The Prikuban District Court of Krasnodar, and then the Court of the Krasnodar Territory rejected Mr Ivaschenko's claim. The journalist, being confident that in his case Articles 8 and 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms are broken, decided to appeal to the ECtHR.