Yesterday, on 4 December 2007 the Kstovo City Court considered the complaint of the Committee Against Torture against the inaction of Ms Klimova, an investigator of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation.

Ms Klimova did not carry out an inquiry into the complaint filed by the chairman of the Committee Against Torture Igor Kalyapin against the actions of Mr Zabaluev, an investigator of the Kstovo City prosecutor’s office. It the complaint the human rights defender insisted on opening a criminal case against Mr Zabaluev should the inquiry reveal indications of a crime in the actions of the investigator.

Mr Kalyapin lodged the application in the interests of Valery Dontsov.

You may remember that Valery Dontsov, a local citizen, applied to the Committee asking to grant him legal assistance and carry out a public investigation into his cruel treatment by policemen of the Kstovo district police station (UVD) on 23 July 2007. In addition Mr Dontsov complained to lawyers of the Committee about the unlawful actions of investigator of the Kstovo City prosecutor’s office Zabaluev.

While refusing to open a criminal case under the application of the Committee, investigator T. Klimova did not give any legal assessment of the actions of Mr Zabaluev in her decision and did not carry out the inquiry in respect of the reasons stated by the chairman of the INGO Committee Against Torture in his complaint and did not notify about the adopted decision.  

    Therefore the prosecution official has violated several provisions of the Russian Criminal Procedure Code at a time.

Having considered the complaint, judge of the Kstovo City Court Bakulina decided that the inaction of investigator Klimova was unlawful and obliged her to remedy the violation.

The Committee Against Torture repeatedly comes across the reluctance of prosecution officials to comply with the requirements set out by laws.

The unlawfulness of actions or inaction of prosecution officials under a number of cases which are in the scope of the Committee is now and again reiterated in courts.

Unfortunately, there are no positive changes in this line even after the recent reform of the Prosecution Service.