On August 5, 2008 the Oktyabrskiy district court of Krasnodar issued a decision to release Mr. Atayev on parole.  In accordance with the national legislation and the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, the applicant should have been released immediately. However, head of SIZO 1 Mr. V.V. Nikolayev considered the court ruling to be not good enough to release a person and motivated his refusal by saying that “there were doubts about the document’s correctness in terms of its execution”. Even after he received a confirmation from the Oktyabrskiy district court, the SIZO head did not set the applicant free.   

Now Mr. Atayev has been unlawfully detained in pretrial detention centre 1 in Krasnodar for 10 days. Yesterday he went on hunger-strike because other ways he used to restore his rights did not bring any result.   

In the context of these events the Committee against Torture filed an urgent application with the European Court of Human Rights. Besides the application claiming violation of articles 3,5, 6 and 13 of the Convention, the Committee asked the Court to communicate the application to the Russian government as soon as possible to take prompt steps because the violation is to be eliminated before   it leads to irreversible consequences. The applicant’s health is already seriously damaged due to rough detention conditions, but right now it is aggravated by emotional stress and the hunger-strike. Besides, the Committee asks the Court to issue this case priority status because it is important to nip such violations in the bud since they can become recurrent and be used against a large number of people released on parole.