The Supreme Court of the Republic of Mary El dismissed the ruling of the court of the first instance which compelled the Ministry of the Interior of the Russian Federation to pay two million rubles to relatives of Maksim Yadykov, who died in 2014 after the examination fight when he attempted to get an employment in the Republican Special Police Force. Human rights defenders with the Committee for the Prevention of Torture, representing the interests of the Yadykov family, disagree with this ruling of the court and intend to appeal against it.
(Maksim Yadukov, source of the photo: https://vk.com)
As we have previously reported, on 15 December 2014 Anatoly Yadykov and Rimma Yadykova applied to human rights defenders for legal assistance. According to the couple in September last year Maksim decided to join the Mary El Department of Interior Special Police Force. Having passed the medical examining board with conclusion «fit for service in Special Police Force», on 9 October he arrived at the police unit to pass an exam for physical training. On the same day at around 4 p.m. the young man’s parents received a call from an unknown number and someone informed them that Maksim felt bad during the exam, the ambulance was called, but «it’s nothing at all serious». However in a while the Yadykov family received another call and this time they were informed that their son was in Yoshkar-Ola City Hospital in the state of coma. The young man’s parents who came to the medical institution were straight away informed that the case was very challenging and the surgery was ongoing.
On the next day at about 9 in the evening Maksim’s parents learned that their son died in hospital without regaining consciousness.
Later on the forensic medical examination established that the young man’s death resulted from «a severe cerebral contusion with the brain compression with a left-side subdural hemorrhage, which developed due to a closed craniocerebral injury». According to the expert’s opinion, these injuries resulted from «a quadruple impact of a blunt object».
On 11 October 2014 the Yadykov family applied to the Investigative Department of Yoshkar-Ola Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee for the Republic of Mary El. During eight months the Investigative Department conducted checks based on the results of which it issued four illegal refusals to initiate criminal proceedings. And only eight months after, on 22 June 2015, the criminal case was initiated based on Part 1 Article 109 of the Russian Criminal Code («infliction of death by negligence»).
On 22 February 2016 new investigator for this case Stanislav Solovyev passed a ruling on dismissal of the criminal case due to absence of the element of crime. «In the case under question the criminal justice case represented by guiltless harm-doing is underway» – that was the opinion of the investigator.
At the same time, investigator Soloviev submitted a proposal to head of the Police Special Force for the Mary El Republic to eliminate the circumstances which make the crime possible. In his proposal the investigator suggested to «consider adding compulsory attendance of a medic (graduate medical education) to the rules of morale and endurance testing for Police Special Force service together with the check of a candidate’s general well-being and arterial blood pressure at all the stages of the testing, i.e. immediately prior to it, in the breaks between the rounds and immediately after its completion». In addition the investigator suggested considering holding Deputy Head of the Republican Special Police Force liable since he failed to take adequate measures for proper organizing and conducting the testing.
In their turn, Maksim Yadykov’s parents and brother applied to the Yoshkar Ola City Court with a lawsuit against the Republican and the Federal Ministry of the Interior on compensation of moral damage inflicted to them by the death of their close relative. The interests of the Yadykov family in court were represented by lawyer of the Committee for Prevention of Torture Dmitry Yalikov.
On 17 November of last year the Yoshkar Ola City Court compelled the Ministry of the Interior of the Russian Federation to pay two million rubles to relatives of Maksim Yadykov.
As a result, the court held that the Yadykov family claims shall be satisfied partially and compelled the Ministry of the Interior of the Russian Federation to pay compensation in the amount of two million rubles to mother, father and brother of the deceased.
On 28 February 2017 the judicial panel quashed the ruling of the court of the first instance, having satisfied the appellate appeal of the applicant.
“We do not agree with the ruling of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Mary El and we intend to appeal against it under cassational procedure, – lawyer of the Committee for Prevention of Torture Dmitry Yalikov, representing the interests of Maksim Yadykov’s parents, comments. – We think that during the examination fight all necessary measures to secure life and health of Maksim Yadykov were not taken, and this fact, together with the actions of the Special Police Force officers, led to his death. As a matter of fact, the Ministry of the Interior agreed to that: in the court of the first instance his representative provided the departmental ruling in which it was reported that after Maksim’s death it was decided that sparring fights should be mandatorily attended by a medic with a graduate medical education. In addition, Maksim’s father received an reply from the Administration of the President of Russia to his application, in which it was stated that in 2016 measures on adjustment of the Rules of testing were planned, taking into account their practical use, which, in our opinion, also signifies that prior to that they were not well-considered enough”.
“Our son was killed during the exam at the Special Police Force. I’m not afraid to use this word. He was killed and they finished him off. They wanted to kill him and they did, but to prove it… due to our laws it is impossible. When I was preparing for this court hearing, I was wondering back then: “Good God, what kind of laws we are having?” If some damage is done due to the fault of the state officials or state authorities it is impossible to prove guilt according to the applicable laws. And now they are referring to it over and over again. And then they start to roundabout and in the end come to the conclusion that there are no grounds for compensation of moral damage, and dismiss the ruling of the city court. In general, it turns out that we do not have our son with us any longer, and no one is to blame, all guys are great, life goes on, the rights are strictly observed in our country”, – father of the deceased, Anatoly Yadykov, emotionally comments on the court ruling.