On July 16, 2009 another lengthy confrontation between the

Orenburg office of INGO “Committee against Torture” and the Orenburg region Prosecutor’s Office has finished. The subject matter of the dispute is the victim’s right to study the materials of the check under his application. Already on 09 April 2009 a worker of the Committee against Torture representing Mr. A.A. Averkiyev’s interests by proxy asked the head of the Investigation Administration of the Investigation Committee under the RF Prosecutor’s Office for Orenburg region to provide him the materials of the check under his client’s application. However, deputy head of the Special Investigation Department of the IA of the IC under the RF Prosecutor’s Office for Orenburg region D.V. Annenkov denied the request. The deputy head’s motivation was that the check did not concern the representative’s interests, and a copy of Mr. Averkiyev’s power of attorney  could not give the representative a right to study the materials, because under art. 49 of the RF Criminal Procedure Code only a lawyer had the right to represent suspects’ and defendants’ interests.  Human rights defenders appealed against the refusal to court and on 26.06.2009 the Dzerzhinsky district court of Orenburg sustained the claim of Mr. Averkiyev’s representative on the grounds that the official of the IA of the IC under the RF Prosecutor’s Office for Orenburg region had misinterpreted the criminal procedure code. The court held that in accordance with the Constitutional court practice it was not possible to restrict people’s constitutional right only because they had not been officially acknowledged party (suspect, indictee, victim) to the proceedings as stipulated in the RF Criminal Procedure Code. The real status of the person must determine what human and constitutional rights one should enjoy. 

     Assistant prosecutor of the Dzerzhinsky district of Orenburg disagreed with the judge and filed a cassation appeal against the above mentioned decision. However, on 16 July 2009 the Orenburg regional court upheld the decision of the district court and agreed with the opinion of human rights defenders. This is not the first miscue of Orenburg prosecutorial officials who surprisingly often demonstrate their legal illiteracy when opposing human rights protection.

      The Committee against Torture intends to hold the prosecutorial officials responsible for breaching Mr. Averkiyev’s rights disciplinary liable.