Yesterday, on 30 November 2016, The Presidium of Supreme Court of the Russian Federation acknowledged several rulings, passed more than eleven years ago in Orenburg region, to be illegal. So, the resolution to refuse to initiate a criminal case as of 24 March 2005 upon the application of Alexander Andreev reporting on tortures in the police department, as well as the resolutions of the district and regional courts that had found this refusal to be legal were acknowledged as illegal. In the end, The Presidium of Supreme Court passed a ruling to resume proceedings upon Andreev’s claim, but as human rights defenders point out, the guilty party will not receive deserved punishment in any way.

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(Photo: lawyer of the Committee for the Prevention of Torture Sergey Babinets representing the interests of Alexander Andreev at the Supreme Court)

Let us remind you that on 23 February this year the European Court of Human Rights made a ruling upon the claim filed by human rights defenders of the Committee for the Prevention of Torture representing the interests of Aleksandr Andreyev from Orsk (Orenburg region) citizen in 2006. Strasburg judges acknowledged the fact of illegal arrest and tortures that Alexander suffered in the police department in 2005, they also determined that investigating bodies did not conduct efficient investigation of this fact.

As such the ruling of the European Court became the reason for the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation to pay attention to all those illegal resolutions (made upon the claims of Alexander Andreev) to initiate a criminal case at the level of the national court.

Yesterday the Presidium of Supreme Court passed a ruling to resume the proceedings upon Andreev’s claim reporting of the tortures in the police department.

However, as it was already pointed out earlier by the human rights defenders, it will be impossible to indict anyone of the officers of the law-enforcement authorities torturing a 17-year-old boy in 2005, as it has been a year already since the statute of limitation. At the same time the lawyers of the Committee for the Prevention of Torture are going to assert the rights of the person who suffered from tortures and they are planning to use the remaining legal mechanisms.

“Certainly, eleven years is a very long period for justice. Especially for such justice which despite the victory at the European Court could not be considered fully triumphant. The statute of limitation to indict the persons guilty of applying tortures to Andreev is over, and the investigation has nothing to do but refuse to initiate criminal proceedings. After that we are going to bring a court action against the state in order to compensate the damage for violating the reasonable period of criminal proceedings, this way reminding its representatives of the importance of timely and thorough investigation,” – lawyer of the Committee for the Prevention of Torture Sergey Babinets, representing the interests of Alexander Andreev at Supreme Court, emphasizes.