Several days ago the Leninsky district court of Orenburg sustained the suit of Anton Ferapontov and Vyacheslav Sadovsky from Orenburg claiming compensation of moral damage incurred by unlawful arrest and detention in the Dzerzhinsky district Department of Internal Affairs of Orenburg.

   According to the young man, during detention they were tortured and beaten up, however these circumstances were not mentioned as arguments in support of the claim.  The suit was prepared and filed by the Committee against Torture in the interests of Sadovsky and Ferapontov. During the hearing it was established that in August 2008 the claimants had been detained on suspicion of committing a crime, to justify the detention the police had prepared false documents on administrative detention. Mr. Litvinov, prosecutor of the Dzerzhinsky district of Orenburg, admitted that those documents were unlawful. At the same time, it turned out that the detainees were not involved in any crime.

   It also turned out during the hearing that the log of detentions from the Dzerzhinsky district Department of Internal Affairs of Orenburg had been lost beyond retrieve. The Committee against Torture intends to apply to the Orenburg regional Directorate of the Interior asking the authorities to check that fact.  

   Judge Tatiana Petrova awarded 1000 rubles to each claimant to be paid jointly by the Orenburg regional Finance Ministry and Russian Federal Finance Ministry. The Committee against Torture thinks this scarce compensation amount to be unjust and degrading. For example, if we recollect the case of Dmitry Andronov, he was awarded 35 thousand rubles for a night in the remand prison. The Orenburg office of the CAT is going to appeal against this judgment.