FOURTH SECTION
DECISION
Application no. 24097/22
Dylyaver Kurtseyitovych KHALILOV
against Russia
The European Court of Human Rights (Fourth Section), sitting on 21 May 2026 as a Committee composed of:
 Lorraine Schembri Orland, President,
 Faris Vehabović,
 Anne Louise Bormann, judges,
and Uğur Erdal, Acting Deputy Section Registrar,
Having regard to the above application against the Russian Federation lodged with the Court under Article 34 of the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (“the Convention”) on 15 March 2022;
the decision to give notice of the application to the Russian Government;
the observations submitted by the applicant;
the third-party comments submitted by the Ukrainian Government;
Having deliberated, decides as follows:
FACTS AND PROCEDURE1.  The applicant, Mr Dylyaver Kurtseyitovych Khalilov, is a Ukrainian national who was born in 1969 and lived at the material time in the Russian‑annexed Crimea. He was represented by Mr S.A. Zayets, a lawyer practising in Irpin.
2.  In March 2020 the applicant, an imam of the Muslim religious community Çelebicihan, held a Friday prayer attended by about thirty people in the premises used as the Savurçı Camisi mosque in Zavіtne. On 22 April 2020 administrative proceedings were instituted against him, as the authorities considered that the premises were not a religious building (a mosque) and did not belong to the community, treating it instead as part of a sports and recreation complex. On 29 April 2020 the “Sovetskiy District Court of the Republic of Crimea” found him guilty under Article 20.2 (2) of the Russian Code of Administrative Offences for organising or holding a public event in non‑religious premises without prior notification to the authorities, and fined him 30,000 Russian roubles. On 6 July 2020 the “Supreme Court of the Republic of Crimea” upheld the conviction on appeal.
3.  The applicant’s complaints under Articles 9 and 14 of the Convention concerning unjustified restrictions on his freedom of religion were communicated to the Russian Government.
THE LAW4.  The Court reiterates at the outset that it has jurisdiction to examine the present application, since the facts giving rise to the alleged violation occurred before 16 September 2022 in the territory of Crimea, which was at the material time under Russian jurisdiction (see, as regards the temporal aspect, Fedotova and Others v. Russia [GC], nos. 40792/10 and 2 others, §§ 68-73, 17 January 2023, and, as regards the territorial aspect, Ukraine v. Russia (re Crimea) [GC], nos. 20958/14 and 38334/18, § 873, 25 June 2024).
5.  The Court further notes that the alleged interference, in the form of the applicant’s conviction at first instance, occurred on 29 April 2020 (see Pivkina and Others v. Russia (dec.), nos. 2134/23 and 6 others, § 77, 6 June 2023) and the appeal decision which the Court would have regarded as “final”, had the administrative-offence proceedings been conducted within the internationally recognised territory of Russia, was issued on 6 July 2020 (see Andrey Rylkov Foundation and Others v. Russia, nos. 37949/18 and 83 others, § 99, 18 June 2024, and the authorities cited therein). However, the present application was lodged on 15 March 2022, that is to say more than one year after either of those dates.
6.  Accordingly, this application has been introduced out of time and must be rejected in accordance with Article 35 §§ 1 and 4 of the Convention.
For these reasons, the Court, unanimously,
Declares the application inadmissible.
Done in English and notified in writing on 11 June 2026.
 
 Uğur Erdal Lorraine Schembri Orland
 Acting Deputy Registrar President