4
L.M. AND OTHERS v. RUSSIA JUDGMENT
expulsion could not be carried out at that time. On 30 June 2014 the District
Court found that the Code of Administrative Offences did not provide for
stays of expulsion as opposed to the payment of fines and dismissed the
request.
16. On 4 July 2014 the District Court issued a similar decision in respect
of L.M., pursuant to a request by the Bailiff Service on 1 July 2014. None of
the parties were present at the hearing, including L.M.
17. It appears from the letter of 8 July 2014 sent by the Kaluga Federal
Bailiff Service to the applicants’ lawyer that it was unaware at that date of
the District Court’s decisions. From the same letter it appears that a similar
request had been made for a stay of execution in respect of A.A.
C. A.A.’s escape
18. Since 15 and 16 April 2014 the applicants have been detained at the
detention centre.
19. According to the Government’s observations received in December
2014, A.A. escaped on 25 August 2014. An internal report was prepared by
the head of the Kaluga FMS the same day, describing the events as follows:
“In the early hours of 25 August 2014, between 3 and 4 a.m., a group of foreign
nationals and stateless people detained pending administrative deportation from the
[detention centre] escaped from the premises ... The group included ... [A.A.], a
Syrian national, born on 15 January 1987 ... An investigation has established that the
people used an unfinished ventilation shaft located between the ground and first floors
of the building. Having reached the first floor, the people jumped out of the window
onto a pile of construction rubbish and, having covered the surveillance devices ...
with a blanket, left the grounds of the centre with the aid of construction materials
stored in the courtyard.
The exact circumstances of the escape are being established. An internal
investigation is being held in respect of the staff who had allowed the seven foreign
nationals to escape.
The local police have been told to organise a search for the people who have
escaped.”
20. The applicants’ representative claimed to have had no knowledge of
the escape prior to receiving the Government’s observations, expressing her
concern that they had not submitted the information earlier, for example
when making their observations of 2 September 2014.
21. In reply to the Court’s further questions in this regard, in their
observations of 24 April 2015 the Government explained that no
administrative or criminal proceedings had been initiated, as an escape from
a detention centre for foreign nationals pending deportation was not an
offence under any legislation. While the police continued to search for the
detainees, their whereabouts, including those of A.A., remained unknown.