On 17 November 2010 at 12.00, in the press-centre at the address: Orenburg, 4 Svobodina Street (floor 7), there will be a press-conference of the head of the Orenburgoffice of the Interregional Committee Against Torture, Vyacheslav Dyundin. The press-conference will be devoted to two judgments of the European Court of Human Rights under applications of Orenburg residents claiming police abuse.

   Analysis of cases dealt with by the Orenburg office of the Committee Against Torture shows that the torture practice persists in the Orenburg law enforcement bodies. The investigation authorities under the prosecutor’s office obligated to investigate into torture cases by law resort to the practice of intentional delays with the same persistence. Many cases are investigated for years. Though the policemen’s guilt is evident, the investigation authorities issue numerous refusals to instigate criminal proceedings which are later found unlawful following ICAT’s appeals. The vicious practice of investigation sabotage which took place in 2001, 2004 and 2010 results in impunity for perpetrators.

We invite mass media representatives to attend the press-conference.