ROMAN ZAKHAROV v. RUSSIA JUDGMENT
47
(see paragraph 31 above). One of the courts noted that supporting materials
were never attached to requests for authorisation; another court noted that
some, but not all, of the requests were accompanied by supporting materials,
while the third court stated that all requests were accompanied by
supporting materials. In all three courts the judges never requested that the
law-enforcement authorities submit additional supporting materials, such as
materials confirming the grounds for the interception or proving that the
telephone numbers to be tapped belonged to the person concerned. Two
courts granted interception authorisations in respect of unidentified persons,
one of them specifying that such authorisations only concerned collection of
data from technical channels of communication. Such authorisations did not
mention a specific person or a telephone number to be tapped, but
authorised interception of all telephone communications in the area where a
criminal offence had been committed. One court never gave such
authorisations. Two courts noted that authorisations always indicated the
duration for which the interception was authorised, while one court stated
that the duration of interception was not indicated in the authorisations
issued by it. Finally, none of the three courts had examined any complaints
from persons whose communications had been intercepted.
194. The applicant also produced official statistics by the Supreme Court
for the period from 2009-13. It could be seen from those statistics that in
2009 Russian courts granted 130,083 out of 132,821 requests under the
CCrP and 245,645 out of 246,228 requests under the OSAA (99%). In 2010
the courts allowed 136,953 out of 140,372 interception requests under the
CCrP and 276,682 out of 284,137 requests under the OSAA. In 2011 the
courts allowed 140,047 out of 144,762 interception requests under the CCrP
and 326,105 out of 329,415 requests under the OSAA. In 2012 they granted
156,751 out of 163,469 interception requests under the CCrP (95%) and
372,744 out of 376,368 requests under the OSAA (99%). In 2013 the courts
allowed 178,149 out of 189,741 interception requests lodged under the
CCrP (93%) and 416,045 out of 420,242 interception requests lodged under
the OSAA (99%). The applicant drew the Court’s attention to the fact that
the number of interception authorisations had almost doubled between 2009
and 2013. He also argued that the very high percentage of authorisations
granted showed that the judges did not verify the existence of a “reasonable
suspicion” against the interception subject and did not exercise careful and
rigorous scrutiny. As a result, interceptions were ordered in respect of vast
numbers of people in situations where the information could have been
obtained by other less intrusive means.
195. The applicant concluded from the above that the authorisation
procedure was defective and was therefore not capable of confining the use
of secret surveillance measures to what was necessary in a democratic
society.