The European Court ordered Russia to pay compensation to an American woman separated from her Russian husband
'12.06.2018'
Source: with the BBC
US citizen Jennifer Gaspard, who was the wife of St. Petersburg lawyer Ivan Pavlov, won the case against Russia in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).
In 2014, Gaspar was expelled from Russia due to a "threat to national security", thereby separating her from her husband, now the court ordered the country to pay her compensation, writes with the BBC.
The amount of compensation was 12,5 thousand euros (14,7 thousand dollars). In addition, Russia must reimburse the woman 1,6 thousand euros (1,9 thousand dollars) of the costs of litigation.
In August, 2014, Gaspar, who at the time was the wife of lawyer Pavlov, who headed the Freedom of Information Foundation, received a notification from the Russian migration service that her residence permit was revoked and that she needed to leave the country.
A woman at that time was in charge of several civil society support programs in St. Petersburg CEELI Instituteand also advised NGOs working with HIV-infected children.
As a reason for the expulsion, the letter indicated a clause of the law on the legal status of foreigners in Russia, which states that a residence permit may be canceled if a foreign citizen “advocates a violent change in the foundations of the constitutional order of the Russian Federation or otherwise creates a threat to security Russia and its citizens ”.
The decision was made on the basis of the conclusion of the FSB. The attempt to restore the residence permit through the court did not succeed, Gaspar reached the Supreme Court of Russia, which in April 2015 of the year, having demanded the secret conclusion of the FSB, recognized the demand of the special service to annul the American residence permit.
Lawyer Pavlov, who then moved to Prague with his wife and their five-year-old daughter, called it a “circus”. Later, the couple divorced.
“I have no information about who and why gave the order to ban me from living in Russia. This happened shortly after the annexation of Crimea - probably due to the fact that I am an American, I work with NGOs and because of the work of my ex-husband. As a result, our family was broken and our daughter was dealt a huge blow, ”the woman said.
The ECtHR requested information from Russia on the grounds for revoking the Gaspar residence permit, including the relevant FSB documents, but the secret service refused to provide these documents.
As a result, the ECtHR recognized that the courts are obliged to verify the accuracy of the information provided by the FSB. He ruled that the actions of the migration service, which carried out the order of the FSB, as well as the decisions of the Russian courts violated article 8 of the Convention on Human Rights on the right to respect for private and family life. The European Court decided that the decision of the immigration service, as well as the verdicts of the Russian courts, led to the fact that Gaspar could not live with her husband in Russia, which could adversely affect their relationship.
