We would like to remind you that Mikhail Timin was detained on 10 March 2004. While he was in the remand prison, his condition aggravated. According to his cell mates, he had fits accompanied by convulsions. Due to requests of inmates, the police called in an ambulance. The doctors examined Mr. Timin and told the policemen that he should be urgently hospitalized. However, the police left the man in the detention facility. But fits were recurrent with an increasing frequency and they had to take Timin to hospital where he was given several injections, after that the detainee was driven back to the remand prison. Some hours later the patient’s condition aggravated further and the police again called in an ambulance. Doctors diagnosed epilepsy and recommended prompt examination by a neurologist. Meanwhile, Timin still had fits and the police placed him in a solitary cell to spare themselves further trouble. In the early morning on 13 March 2004 Mr. Timin died of a heart failure.

The Department of Internal Affairs conducted an official check which resulted in bringing several remand prison officials to disciplinary responsibility. But the prosecutorial investigation turned out to be ineffective. For seven years the investigation authorities went on issuing refusals to open criminal proceedings which were later quashed by higher-standing officials or rendered unlawful in court.

Quite recently, on November 2011, the Oktyabrsky city court of Bashkiria found another refusal to instigate criminal proceedings upon the fact of Mikhail Timin’s death in the remand prison of the Oktyabrsky Department of Internal Affairs unlawful. The court once again obliged the investigative authorities to conduct an additional, more thorough check of the incident.

In December 2009 specialists of the Interregional Committee Against Torture applied to the ECtHR on behalf of the victim’s sister. Now the Russian Federation has to prove that it is not involved in Timin’s death and demonstrate to the European Court that the investigation into this incident was thorough and quick.