Alakhverdyan complains to European Court against Ukraine
The European Court of Human Rights is considering the complaint against the government of Ukraine by Sergiy Volodymrovych Alakhverdyan, a Ukrainian national who was born in 1984. He is currently serving a life sentence in Vinnytsya (Ukraine).
The case concerns Alakhverdyan’s application to Ukraine’s Supreme Court for review of his conviction for the murders of two people and causing minor bodily injuries to a third person in 2004. His request was made based on the judgment of the European Court on 16 April 2019 (no. 12224/09) that there had been a violation of Article 6 § 1 and 3 (c) of the Convention due to restrictions on the right to defence.
The Supreme Court allowed Alakhverdyan’s application for review in part and excluded pieces of
evidence obtained which it held to be in breach of his right to defence and therefore inadmissible,
but upheld the conviction on the basis of the remaining evidence.
Relying on Article 6 (right to a fair trial), Alakhverdyan submitted that the Supreme Court lacked the
power to conduct a re-examination of the evidence, and that a remittal to the trial court for rehearing. Alakhverdyan further submitted that such exclusion of evidence constituted a considerable change in the body of evidence in his case, and he had inadequate time and facilities to prepare his defence in the framework of the review proceedings.
