ThisisthebiggestcompensationfortorturesbythepoliceawardedbyaRussiancourt.

    Today the Sormovskiy district court sustained the claim of Mr. Yuriy Sidorov, lawyer of the Committee against Torture, in favour Mr. Sergey Sankin from Nizhny Novgorod who had suffered from unlawful actions of the police and become disables after being savagely battered in 2000.
Judge Lidia Kleptsova adjudicated that the defendant – the Nizhny Novgorod region Finance Ministry – should pay Sergey Sankin a lump-sum of 1 million 137 thousand rubles to compensate damage to his health and 2 million rubles as compensation of moral damages. Besides, till April 2009 Sergey will receive17 rubles on a monthly basis.You may remember that in December 2005 the Sormovskiy district court of Nizhny Novgorod sentenced 2 police officers who had battered Mr. Sankin, police senior sergeant Alexey Guganov and police sergeant Dmitriy Ageyev to 5 years and 6 months of imprisonment in an increased security penal colony.  

   The court determined that in May 2000 retired officer of the Department of Internal Affairs, military pilot, participant of anti-terrorist operations in the North Caucasus Mr. Sergey Sankin had been detained in his own flat in course of a domestic quarrel, taken to a police station and battered there by officers Ageyev and Guganov. The battery resulted in a concussion and multiple bruises on the head and body. The investigation included a forensic medical examination. According to the doctors, due to the craneocerebral injury caused by the battery Mr.Sankin developed a psychosomatic disorder.    

   Within five years the investigation was many times stopped because “the police officers’ actions did not constitute corpus delicti.” The Public Verdict Foundation assisted the lawyer who represented Mr. Sankin’s legal interests in court.

   Mr. Sankin’s application claiming violation of articles 3 and 13 of the European Convention was found admissible by the European Court. The Multiregional Committee against Torture represents Mr.Sankin in the European Court of Human Rights. It should be mentioned that when the judgment enters into force and the money will be paid out to Mr. Sankin the complaint will be exhausted. Lawyers of the Committee representing the applicant in the ECtHR think that the compensation awarded to Mr.Sankin is adequate and sufficient.
   That is why upon receipt of the compensation the Multiregional Committee against Torture will start negotiating with Mr.Sankin withdrawal of the claim from the European Court.