The cases concern two Russian nationals who were arrested in November 2006 on charges of drug trafficking and spent more than three years in detention awaiting trial. Both applicants, Yuliya Koroleva (born in 1980) and Yuriy Pyatkov (born in 1963), lived before their arrests in Ufa, Republic of Bashkortostan. In April 2011, they were convicted of attempted drug trafficking and sentenced to eight and nine years' imprisonment respectively. They are currently detained in Ufa IZ -3/1 remand prison pending examination of their appeal against the conviction. Relying on Article 5 §§ 1, 3 and 4 (right to liberty and security), both applicants make a number of complaints about their pre-trial detention: namely that two periods of their pre-trial detention in 2008 and 2009 were unlawful; that it was excessively long; and, that there were shortcomings in the proceedings for review of the lawfulness of their continued detention (notably the applicants’ absence from the appeal hearings to decide on their continued detention and, in Ms Koroleva’s case, the courts’ failure at two hearings to address any of the grounds of appeal against certain detention orders). Mr Pyatkov also alleges under Article 3 (prohibition of torture and of inhuman or degrading treatment) that he has contracted tuberculosis in prison.
(citation from the official press-release prepared by the European Court of Human Rights)