The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on July 17 passed a decision in the case of the farmers from Dubasari district, whose land was sequestrated by the secessionist Transnistrian administration. The Court ordered that Russia should pay €2 499 300 damages to the plaintiffs. The application was filed in the name of 1,646 plaintiffs and three agricultural companies from Dubasari district that were represented at the ECHR by lawyers of Promo-LEX Association, IPN reports.
According to Promo-LEX, the Court ascertained the violation by Russia of Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 of the European Convention on Human Rights, namely of the ownership right or right to use the land, and of Article 13 of the Convention, cumulated with Article 1 of Protocol No. 1, over lack of an effective remedy at national level concerning the violation of Article 1 of the Convention. Of the total €2 499 300, each owner will get by €1,500, while each agricultural company by € 5,000.
The Court also held that the Russian Government should pay €115 300 damages to Agro-Tiras SRL, €80 500 damages to Agro-SAVVA SRL and €50 000 damages to GT Serghei Popa. A sum of €20,000 is to be paid as court costs.
“After 14 years, the European Court confirmed that the ownership rights of thousands of inhabitants from the security zone were violated. It should be noted that their problems haven’t been yet solved. We hope that now that this judgement was passed, the owners will be able to fully use their land,” said the director of Promo-LEX Ion Manole.
According to the director of the Association’s Human Rights Program Alexandru Postica, the findings of the European Court are very important and topical. “This decision comes to ascertain particular aspects that cannot be ignored, namely that the human rights cannot be negotiated and should be respected,” stated Alexandru Postica.
The problem of farmland located beyond the Tiraspol-Dubasari-Rybnitsa road appeared in a number of villages of Dubasari district in 1998, when representatives of the separatist regime illegally installed posts on the Tiraspol-Rybnitsa road. At the end of the agricultural year 2004, the plaintiffs were banned access to their land and these sustained losses of millions of lei as a result. At the start of the agricultural year 2005, the landowners were again prevented from cultivating the land and they supported again huge losses.
The plaintiffs are inhabitants of Dorotcaia, Pirita, Molovata-Noua, Pohrebea and Cocieri villages that are situated on the left side of the Nistru.
