5.  The facts of the applications, as submitted by the parties, may be summarised as follows. 6.  The first applicant was born in 1967 and lives in Perm. 7.  On 6 May 2003 the first applicant was stopped by a customs officer at a Moscow international airport and found to be in possession of 10,200 euros (EUR) and 8,755 US dollars[1] (USD) which he failed to report on his customs declaration. 8.  On 4 December 2003 the Golovinskiy District Court in Moscow convicted the first applicant of smuggling and issued a confiscation order in respect of the foreign currency he had carried on him. On 5 February 2004 the Moscow City Court upheld the judgment on appeal. 9.  Further to an application from a deputy Moscow prosecutor, on 5 December 2008 the Presidium of the Moscow City Court amended the judgment. Noting that there was no evidence that the confiscated currency had been the instrument of a crime or had been criminally acquired, it cancelled the confiscation order and ordered the confiscated money to be refunded to the first applicant. 10.  On 3 June 2009 the amount of 628,750 Russian roubles (RUB)[2] was credited into the first applicant’s bank account. 11.  The first applicant sued the Ministry of Finance, seeking to recover the interest accrued on the retained amount during the period from 6 May 2003 to 3 June 2009, which he assessed at RUB 458,777. 12.  On 25 August 2009 the Tverskoy District Court in Moscow granted his claim in part. It awarded the first applicant RUB 11,719.20[3] in respect of the period from 2 April 2009 when his representative had submitted the bank details to the Ministry of Finance until 3 June 2009 when the transfer had been made. The District Court did not say anything about the part of the claim concerning the previous six-year period. 13.  The second and third applicants were born in 1967 and 1971 respectively and live in Graz, Austria. 14.  On 11 October 2004 the customs officer at a Moscow international airport stopped the second and third applicants as they were carrying EUR 14,600 and 14,980 euros in cash, respectively, which they had not reported on their customs declarations. 15.  On 14 and 16 February 2006 the Golovinskiy District Court in Moscow found the second and third applicants guilty as charged and issued confiscation orders. On 10 April 2006 the Moscow City Court upheld the conviction on appeal. 16.  On an application from a deputy Moscow prosecutor, on 26 August 2011 the Presidium of the Moscow City Court amended the judgments in respect of the second and third applicants. Noting that there was no evidence that the confiscated currency had been the instrument of a crime or had been criminally acquired, it cancelled the confiscation orders and ordered to refund RUB 526,471.62 to Ms Sumann and RUB 540,174.30 to Mr Sumann.[4]