Today the Avtozavodskiy district court (Nizhny Novgorod) started hearing the civil case of Mr. Sergey Orekhov and Mr. Dmitriy Rusov who demand compensation of moral damages incurred by unlawful actions of the regional prosecutor’s office personnel. You may remember that for 2 years the Multiregional Committee against Torture that represents the victims’ interests has been trying to instigate a criminal case against the police officers who battered the young men in January 2006, as Mr.Rusov and Mr. Orekhov claim.

The Prosecutor’s office has 8 times refused to start a criminal case basing on the fact of battery.

In course of today’s hearing the plaintiffs’ representative voiced their claims (Dmitriy Rusov and Sergey Orekhov demand 70000 rubles each as compensation of moral damages), the court also listened to the defendant’s opinion – the Finance Ministry representative thinks that this claim should not be sustained.  

The next court hearing is scheduled for June 24. The expectation is that the court will adjudicate on the case on this day.