Ukrainian Justice Ministry: ECHR to review amount of damages caused by seizure of property in occupied Crimea

1 trillion 80 billion hryvnia loss caused by illegal seizure of property in the occupied Crimea is not the final amount. It will be reviewed by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

This was stated by First Deputy Justice Minister of Ukraine Natalia Sevostyanova, the Human Rights Information Centre correspondent reports.

“When we win the action, when the violations under the law are recognized, then the final amount of damages will be determined at the compensation stage. At that stage, we will refer to the international expert organizations for the ECHR to clearly set the amount of losses our country sustained, on the basis of available evidence and documents,” she said.

“We don’t ask for compensation in any case. It is a principled position of the government. We demand to de-occupy Crimea, return the property and compensate for not being able to use our property during this period,” Natalia Sevostyanova said.

She believes that delay in official Russia’s explanations on claims over annexation of Crimea and Donbas aggression is good for Ukraine.

“In 2014, when it all began, the evidence base was very small. Now, everything is being processed in more detail, a deeper legal position is being prepared. It is important for us to have strong evidence,” the First Deputy Justice Minister said.

She also recalled that every citizen can send personal complaints about violation of rights, particularly property rights, to the ECHR with the help of a network of centers providing free legal assistance. The court will consider such complaints more quickly than the inter-state complaints, Sevostyanova considers.

Natalia Sevostyanova believes that denationalization of property in Crimea, recently announced by the Russian government, will not affect the complaints filed with the European Court of Human Rights.

“The denationalization plan is being developed for the relief of sanctions. Russia needs to show the process itself, not the result. If the issue will be solved at a separate stage, our requirements will still remain – to pay compensation and return the property. Our citizens will be able to freely use the property, which was created in order to satisfy all human rights, only when Russia leaves Crimea,” Natalia Sevostyanova said.

The Justice Ministry believes that the ECHR is an effective mechanism to address such complaints, and notes that there are ways to make Russia comply with the ECHR judgments.

“Russia hedged its bets at different historical stages and introduced in the majority of conventions a provision that the application of certain judicial instruments and their decisions is not binding on Russia. However, the ECHR has a tool for encouraging and monitoring over enforcement of judgments. This tool is the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe,” the Deputy Minister noted.

“We see how Russia is struggling to stay in the Council of Europe and to return to the session hall. Non-compliance with the ECHR judgments is a serious problem of political nature for them,” she added.

In addition, more aggressive tools for enforcement of judgments remain for Russia, e.g. arrest of Russian property abroad.

“We have about 40 agreements on mutual enforcement of court judgments. Thus, these countries will contribute to enforcement, even if our national court will rule to arrest the property and return it,” Natalya Sevostyanova explained.

As reported, the European Court of Human Rights started to consider the complaint filed by PJSC “Feodosia shipbuilding company “More” (Sea) about violation of the company’s rights as a result of the illegal nationalization of its assets in Crimea.