MOSCOW, October 3 (RIA Novosti) – The European Court of Human Rights on Thursday ordered Russia to pay chess master-turned-political activist Garry Kasparov 10,000 euros ($13,500) in compensation for his “unjustified” detention in 2007.
“Judges have ruled today that the arrest of Garry Kasparov and other demonstrators at a 2007 Moscow opposition meeting was unjustified,” the Strasbourg court said on its website.
Kasparov and eight other people were detained in downtown Moscow on April 14, 2007, ahead of an anti-government rally that was to take place in the Russian capital on the same day.
The European court ruled that the detentions were a violation of “the right to a fair trial” and “freedom of assembly and association.”
“The court found that the applicants’ defense rights had been limited in a manner incompatible with the guarantees of a fair trial, as their request to examine eyewitnesses had been refused,” the court said in its statement. “Their arrest had been disproportionate to the aim of maintaining public order.”
Since retiring from professional chess in 2005, Kasparov has become active in Russian politics as a fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin. He announced earlier this year that he had left Russia over fears of persecution for his political activities.
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