On February 14 the Orenburg regional court heard the cassation appeals of victim Alexander Voroshilov and convicted policemen Evgeny Kuznetsov and Oleg Moiseyev against the verdict delivered by the Promyshlenny district court of Orenburg.  

We would like to remind you that in 2009 Alexander Voroshilov applied to the Prosecutor’s Office claiming police abuse. He alleged that on August 30, 2009 he had been detained and tortured with the purpose of making him confess to drugs possession. The authorities twice refused to instigate criminal proceedings under Voroshilov’s crime report, the investigation took two years and was twice referred for additional inquiry by the prosecutor. At the beginning of 2011 the case finally reached the court which found the policemen guilty and sentenced them to 3 years of imprisonment, the sentence was suspended.

In his cassation appeal the victim asked the court to quash the verdict on the grounds that suspended sentence for tortures was inconsistent with international norms and standards. In their turn, the convicts were asking for acquittal. The cassation court dismissed both claims, ignoring human rights defenders’ references to ECtHR case law.  

Despite the cassation judgment, lawyers of the Committee Against Torture believe that such a lenient sentence for tortures preserves the status of victim for the applicant and, consequently, the possibility to apply to the European Court of Human Rights.