On June 9, 2011, stateless person Roman Anatolyevich Kim was
detained in the Sestroretske Kurortny district of Saint Petersburg for not
having identity documents. Police officers wrote him up for committing
the administrative offence stipulated in Part 1 of Article 18.8 of the RF
Code of Administrative Offences (“violation of residence rules in the RF”).
On July 19, 2011, a court issued a ruling finding Kim guilty of violating
residence rules and subjecting him to punishment in the form of a 2,000
ruble fine and expulsion from Russia. Prior to his expulsion (and without
any indication of the date of its execution), Kim was placed in a foreign
national detention center of the Central Office of the Ministry of Internal
Affairs for Saint Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast.
This Center is an eight-story building designed to hold 176 people that
actually holds at least 300 people and up to 400 in the summer and
during special raids. The applicant was initially held in a cell of less than
10 square meters with five or six other people. During the last 10 months
of his confinement, he was kept in a cell with an area of 18 square meters,
which he shared with four and sometimes seven other prisoners. These cells
did not have sinks or access to drinking water. There was only one toilet
and one shower for the entire floor, which were used by approximately
40 people. Until March 2013, the applicant was allowed to spend 20
to 30 minutes two to three times a week in a small yard outside. Also,
prisoners were not able to participate in any meaningful activities: there
was no access to television, radio, newspapers, or magazines.
Not one single response was received from any agency (Directorate of
the Federal Migration Service, Directorate of the Federal Bailiffs Service,
Foreign National Detention Center) to the numerous requests made by
Kim’s attorney regarding measures taken for his expulsion. It was only
after Kim had been held at the center for six months that the FMS office sent
a query to the embassy of the Republic of Uzbekistan, whose citizen Kim
was presumed to be. On February 5, 2013, a response was received that
it would not be possible to issue Kim a certificate to return to Uzbekistan
in light of the fact that he was not a citizen of this country. Even though
it was confirmed that Kim could not be expelled, courts for the place of
detention and for the place where the initial ruling was issued refused to
consider this complaint, which was filed with account for new facts, and
Kim continued to be held in the detention center without any legal grounds
or any prospect of expulsion until July 23, 2013, i.e. for over two years.
Upon his release, Kim, following the ECtHR judgment, started legalization
procedures with the assistance of his attorneys and staff from human rights
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