On 24 February 2009 judge Alexander Bakeyev from the Sovietskiy district court of Nizhny Novgorod sustained the claim of the Committee against Torture lodged in the interests of pensioner Victor Semyonov claimingthat he had been battered by the police.
The Committee against Torture appealed against unlawful actions of a prosecutorial official from the Nizhegorodskiy district Prosecutor’s office. The complaint was caused by the fact that all refusals to open criminal proceedings under Semyonov’s application issued by the district police officer had been sent to the district prosecutor’s office for supervision. But instead of sending the materials to the corresponding authority according to the jurisdiction, the Nizhegorodskiy district prosecutor’s office filed it back to the Nizhegorodskiy district Directorate of the Interior for an additional check.
Therefore, on 29 January 2008 the Committee against Torture representing Mr. Semyonov complained about inaction of the Nizhegorodskiy district prosecutor to the regional Prosecutor’s Office. Judging by the reply of the regional Prosecutor’s Office, the complaint was submitted for consideration to the Nizhegorodskiy district prosecutor, i.e. to the person whose unlawful inaction was in question. Article 10 of the Federal Law “On Public prosecution of the Russian Federation” prohibits sending complaints to the body or official whose actions are contested.
Lawyers of the Committee lodged a complaint about unlawful actions of the Nizhny Novgorod regional Prosecutor’s Office with the Sovietskiy district court.
The Sovietskiy district court has sustained the claim mentioning that the Nizhny Novgorod regional Prosecutor’s office staff should have considered the appeal against inaction of the Nizhegorodskiy district prosecutor on the merits and notified the applicant thereof within the period stipulated by law.
The court has found the actions of Svetlana Ponomaryova, head of the 3rd Investigation Supervision Department unlawful and ill-founded and obliged her to eliminate the faults.