The European court of human rights (ECHR) has obliged the Russian authorities to pay compensation in the amount of 95 thousand Euro three Russian citizens who were subjected to torture by law enforcement officers. Thus, the court ruled that Russia had violated article 3 of the European Convention on human rights (prohibition of torture).
As reported on the official website of the ECHR, the court’s decision concerns complaints addressed to the European court in the period from 2009 to 2014, three Russians, residents of the Sverdlovsk region and Orenburg. Alexander Olisov, Nikita Danskin and Yuri Umbrellas filed complaints on unrelated incidents of violence to the police.
Alisov was detained on suspicion of organizing contract killings, Danskin – on suspicion of preparing a terrorist attack, Umbrellas – on suspicion of theft. In their statements to the ECHR they also noted that after the arrest, the police beat and tortured them, forcing to confess.
In all three cases, the detention was not documented, and the detainees themselves gave the court the medical examination of the injuries, which ruled the ECHR, could really be sustained during torture.
“These circumstances were sufficient to the plaintiffs’ complaint was considered valid. In such circumstances, the burden of proof falls on the state, which was to provide a convincing explanation and evidence that would put into question the version of the plaintiffs,” he said in court, (quoted by the Russian service of the BBC).
However, in all three cases the Russian authorities did not and refused to conduct an investigation against the accused police officers, who stated that the plaintiffs caused his injury themselves. These failures, in turn, were later approved by the courts to local jurisdictions. The ECHR drew attention to the fact that Russian courts have recognized unconfirmed and unconvincing evidence against the police.
Recall that last Friday, April 28, it became known that the Ministry of justice of Russia appealed the decision of the ECHR on payment of the oppositionist Alexey Navalny compensation 63 thousand euros for the arrest at protest in 2012-2014. The Russian Ministry noted that “the argument of the Russian authorities formed taking into account the views of competent state bodies”.
In February 2017, the ECHR issued a verdict on the case of Alexei Navalny to the Russian authorities in connection with repeated arrests of opposition leader at the protests in 2012-2014. The court found Navalny victim and awarded him compensation in the amount of 63 thousand euros.
At the end of April to the ECHR was sent the first complaint of unlawful detention during a protest against corruption on March 26. According to the expectations of human rights defenders, the future number of similar complaints to the ECHR could number in the hundreds.