Yesterday the Orenburg regional court increased the amount of compensation for moral damage inflicted to Aleksey Sukhov by illegal criminal proceedings – from fifteen thousand to fifty thousand roubles.
(Lawyer with the Committee for the Prevention of Tortures Albina Mudarisova, representing the interests of Aleksey Sukhov)
Let us remind you the background of this case. On 11 April 2012 Aleksey Sukhov, a citizen of Orenburg region applied to Orenburg branch of “The Committee Against Torture” for legal assistance. He told human rights defenders that on 29 August 2011 he was coming back home after his driving school training in Prigorodny settlement. Not far from home he was stopped by two police officers who decided to search Aleksey. According to Sukhov, during the search he saw that the police officers were trying to plaint some marijuana on him – Aleksey started to express his indignation with the unlawful actions of the law-enforcement officers, trying to attract the attention of the passers-by. However, shouting did not help and the police officers severely beat the man up, after that they took him to the local cemetery, promising that they would «bury him right there».
After these threats Sukhov was taken to the police department and a criminal case was initiated against him under part 1 of Article 228 of the Russian Criminal Code (illegal purchase and storage of a large quantity of drug substance without the intention to sell). However, later on this criminal case was dismissed for absence of a criminal act.
As a result of «communication» with the police officers Aleksey Sukhov got bodily injuries in the form of closed craniocerebral injury, cerebral concussion, haematoma of soft tissues, a bruise in the eye area, subconjunctival hemorrhage of the left eye, scratch marks on the body.
It was decided to turn for legal support to the human rights defenders who got involved in the case in the capacity of Sukhov’s representatives. After a long period of lodging a complaint against the inaction of the investigative authority officers, in May 2014, at last, the criminal case based on Sukhov’s complaint, was initiated and after investigation was taken to court.
On 28 October 2015 judge of the Leninsky District Court of Orenburg Aleksey Konnov passed a judgment of conviction with regard to two former officers of extradepartmental security service Aleksey Reshetilov and Konstantin Sinyagin. They were declared guilty of committing a crime under part «a» Article 286 of the Criminal Code of the RF («abuse of office performed using violence») and sentenced to three and a half years of prison term each to be served at the penal colony of standard regime.
(Aleksey Reshetilov and Konstantin Sinyagin)
The convicts expressing their disagreement to the court verdict submitted appellate complaints against the court decision, but on 26 February of this year the judicial panel of the Orenburg Regional Court upheld the verdict of the court of the first instance.
After the verdict has come into its legal force lawyer of the Committee for the Prevention of Torture Albina Mudarisova, representing the interests of Aleksey Sukhov, submitted a lawsuit for compensation of moral damage inflicted to Aleksey Sukhov by illegal criminal prosecution. The Leninskiy District Court of Orenburg partially upheld the claims under the lawsuit and awarded to Aleksey Sukhov a compensation of moral damage in the amount of fifteen thousand roubles instead of the claimed sum of two hundred thousand roubles.
Aleksey Sukhov and his representative were not satisfied with the amount of the compensation and filed a complaint to the Orenburg regional court.
Yesterday, on 22 December 2016, the judicial board of the Orenburg regional court, after hearing the participants of the trial, passed a ruling to increase the amount of the compensation to fifty thousand roubles in favor of Aleksey Sukhov. In addition, the regional court changed the defendant, making a verdict to claim compensation from the Ministry of Finance of the RF.
“Certainly, the degree of moral suffering of Aleksey due to the illegal criminal proceedings is quite hard to evaluate in money equivalent, but, on the whole, we are satisfied with the decision of the regional court which increased the amount of the compensation awarded by the district court,” – comments lawyer of the Committee for the Prevention of Tortures Albina Mudarisova, representing the interests of Aleksey Sukhov.