| The first instance court has awarded a Ufa resident compensation of damage incurred by omissions of Ufa investigative authorities. |
| 30 November 2011, Wednesday |
Yesterday, on November 29, 2011 the Leninsky district court of Ufa adjudicated on Alexander Kamensky’s suit for compensation of moral damage resulting from delays caused by omissions of Bashkirian investigative authorities under the Bashkirian Prosecutor’s Office and Russian Investigative Committee.
You may remember that in September 2011 the Supreme Court of Bashkiria sustained Alexander Kamensky’s cassation appeal by quashing the unlawful and ill-founded judgment of the Leninsky district court of Ufa dated July 22, 2011 and referring the suit for retrial.
On March 24, 2006 around 10 p.m. officers of the Extradepartmental Guard under the Leninsky district Department of Internal Affairs of Ufa unlawfully detained Kamensky at a bus stop. Detention was accompanied by abuse. A forensic medical examination revealed that Kamensky had sustained a shoulder dislocation incurring damage to health of medium severity. Upon detention, Kamensky was taken to the Leninsky District Department of Internal Affairs where he stayed till the following morning.
Although more than 20 refusals to instigate criminal proceedings were quashed, the preliminary check into the allegations of police abuse was underway for 6 years. Superior orders to eliminate errors were openly ignored in course of the check.
Only on July 7, 2011 the Investigative Administration of the Russian Investigative Committee for the Republic of Bashkiria instigated criminal proceedings under p.1 of Article 286 (abuse of office) of the Russian Criminal Code, and Alexander Kamensky was acknowledged victim.
With regard to the new trial of the suit by the Leninsky district court of Ufa, the Supreme Court of Bashkiria ordered “to consider and evaluate the preliminary check and investigation conducted by the Investigation Administration of the Russian Investigation Committee for Bashkiria, as well as the Bashkirian Prosecutor’s Office, in terms of effectiveness and admissibility of the fact that despite quashing of refusals to instigate criminal proceedings the investigation had taken several years.”
Just like during the first trial, representatives of respondents – Investigative Administration of the Russian Investigative Committee for Bashkiria, Bashkirian Prosecutor’s Office, Russian Finance Ministry – asked the court to dismiss the claim due to its unfounded nature, as well as the lack of legal grounds under Russian law for claiming compensation of moral damage for a several-year-long ineffective check of a crime report by investigative authorities.
As a result, during the retrial, having heard both parties and studied evidence, the Leninsky district court of Ufa sustained Kamensky’s claim in part and obliged the Russian Federal Treasury to pay him 20 thousand rubles as compensation of moral damage.
Taking into account the respondents’ position, a cassation appeal to the Supreme Court of Bashkiria can be expected.