Yesterday the Leninsky district court of Ufa partially sustained the Samvel Rafaeli Alaverdyan’s claim about compensation of moral damage incurred by the crime in Blagoveschensk. The court awarded the plaintiff 70 thousand rubles out of 100 rubles claimed to be paid by the RF Finance Ministry on behalf of the RF Treasury. The RF Treasury will have to pay the given sum to redress the damage inflicted by unlawful actions of a law enforcement agent.

The Bashkirian representation of the Interregional Committee Against Torture represented Samvel Alaverdyan’s interests in court.  

Earlier the court found that on 12 December 2004, in the city of Blagoveschensk in the Republic of Bashkortostan, criminal investigator A.N. Guilvanov entered Samvel’s house in breach of law with several unidentified SPF officers. Samvel, his sons Manvel, Shagan and his underage nephew Gaik were watching TV. The Special Police Forces officers wearing masks immediately started beating them with rubber clubs.

On 17 June 2008 the Blagoveschensk city court of Bashkiria found criminal investigator A.N. Guilvanov guilty of unlawful entry in the house of S.R. Alaverdyan, the court qualified this crime under p.1 art. 286 of the RF Criminal Code abuse of office).

Officer Guilvenopv convicted for six criminal episodes was sentenced to 4 years of imprisonment in a standard security penal colony.   

We are quite sure that this compensation amount will be diminished. Taking into account the legal practice of Bashkirian courts, we may suppose that the Bashkirian Treasury Administration will appeal against the judgment on behalf of the RF Finance Ministry asking the court to cancel it; it is always done with a view to “protect” the budget, apparently, from police abuse victims claiming compensation of moral damage.