Yesterday the Kstovo city court (Nizhny Novgorod region) heard the civil case of Mr. Sergey Bogdanov from Kstovo who demanded compensation of moral damages incurred by the actions of Kstovo police officers – unlawful detention and placement into a cell for administrative detainees. Mr. Bogdanov demands compensation amounting to 70 000 rubles.
The court sustained Mr. Bogdanov’s claim and obliged the RF Finance Ministry to pay him 10 000 rubles as compensation.
   As the Committee against Torture reported earlier the man had applied to the Multiregional Committee against Torture that investigated into the application and represented his interests in court.
Mr. Bogdanov claims that he was battered by Kstovo traffic police officers in February 2007. After the assault he was taken to the Kstovo district police station where he was placed into a cell for administrative detainees and spent 30 hours. The police officers did not explain the reason of detention and placement in custody to him. They did not make out a protocol of administrative offence or a protocol of administrative detention in his presence, the victim did not receive copies of these documents.  None of the police officers offered him to sign the protocols. None of the police officers explained his rights to Mr. Bogdanov, his relatives were not informed either.
    Next day the Kstovo magistrate court informed Mr. Bogdanov that the police officers had written an administrative offence protocol in respect of him under article 19.3 of the RF Administrative Offence Code (defiance towards lawful police orders). Having studied the materials filed by the police, the court ruled that there were discrepancies in traffic police reports and the administrative offence protocol as for the place of the offence. The materials were returned to the police for elimination of discrepancies. After that Mr. Bogdanov was summoned nowhere else in connection to the administrative offence.
    Thus, the police has not taken any action to provide for correct and prompt trail of the administrative case apart from detaining Mr. Bogdanov. First of all, they failed to fill out the administrative offence protocol, the court decision of February 5, 2007 confirms this fact.  Second, when the judge returned the materials for correction, the above mentioned protocol as never sent back to court and the case was never tried and finalized, and Mr. Bogdanov was deprived of a possibility to prove his innocence, because he claimed he had not committed any offence. Thus, Mr. Bogdanov’s arrest and detention were unlawful. The unlawful actions of the police gravely violated his rights under p.1 of article 22 of the RF Constitution and p.1 of article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms according to which an individual has the right to liberty and personal security.
    Besides, unlawful actions of the police made Mr. Bogdanov suffer moral damage because he was affected by unlawful deprivation of freedom and he was distressed because of the conditions of unfounded detention. According to Mr. Bogdanov, he suffered from injuries incurred by the traffic police in course of arrest at the time when he was placed into the cell. After he was released, Mr. Bogdanov went to the Kstovo Central Hospital where his injuries were documented and he was administered in-patient treatment.