ALPEYEVA AND DZHALAGONIYA v. RUSSIA JUDGMENT
17
been deported, the lack of a valid passport had effectively deprived him of
the opportunity to exercise his rights and freedoms. In particular, with an
expired passport, he could not buy train or plane tickets or obtain a loan
from a bank. The second applicant therefore maintained that there had been
a violation of Article 8.
C. Admissibility
1. The Government’s allegation of an abuse of the right of individual
petition
99. The Court reiterates that an application may be rejected as an abuse
of the right of individual application within the meaning of Article 35 §
3 (a) of the Convention if, among other reasons, it was knowingly based on
untrue facts (see, among others, Akdivar and Others v. Turkey [GC],
16 September 1996, §§ 53-54, Reports of Judgments and Decisions
1996-IV; Centro Europa 7 S.r.l. and Di Stefano v. Italy [GC], no. 38433/09,
§ 97, ECHR 2012; and, with further references, Gross v. Switzerland [GC],
no. 67810/10, §§ 27-37, ECHR 2014 ). The submission of incomplete and
thus misleading information may also amount to an abuse of the right of
application, especially if the information concerns the very core of the case
and no sufficient explanation has been provided for the failure to disclose
that information (see Bencheref v. Sweden (dec.), no. 9602/15, § 37,
5 December 2017; Hüttner v. Germany (dec.), no. 23130/04, 9 June 2006;
and Kowal v. Poland (dec.), no. 2912/11, 18 September 2012). The same
applies if new, important developments have occurred during the
proceedings before the Court and where, despite being expressly required to
do so by Rule 47 § 7 (former Rule 47 § 6) of the Rules of Court, the
applicant has failed to disclose that information to the Court, thereby
preventing it from ruling on the case in full knowledge of the facts (see
Centro Europa 7 S.r.l. and Di Stefano, ibid., and Gross, ibid.). However,
even in such cases, the applicant’s intention to mislead the Court must
always be established with sufficient certainty (see Al-Nashif v. Bulgaria,
no. 50963/99, § 9, 20 June 2002; Melnik v. Ukraine, no. 72286/01,
§§ 58-60, 28 March 2006; Nold v. Germany, no. 27250/02, § 87, 29 June
2006; Centro Europa 7 S.r.l. and Di Stefano, ibid.; and Gross, ibid.).
100. The Court takes note of the applicants’ observations to the effect
that the issue of a new passport was irrelevant to the essence of their
complaints. The Court considers that the fact that the applicants were
eventually granted Russian citizenship is undoubtedly relevant for the
examination of the present cases. However, in the Court’s view it does not
affect the substance of the applicants’ complaints under the Convention.
Furthermore, the Court does not have sufficient elements in its possession to