Yesterday the Lazarevsky district court of

Sochi conducted the first hearing of the civil suit filed by victims under the criminal case against Sochi SPF officers. During the hearing the defendant representing the RF Finance Ministry submitted a petition demanding that a prosecutor and an official representative of the RF Ministry of the Interior should take part in the process since, according to him, it is the RF Ministry of the Interior that should be financially liable for the actions of its staff. The petition was sustained. The hearing is stopped till 03 August 2009. Mr. Yuriy Sidorov, the victims’ lawyer provided by the Interregional Committee against Torture and the Public Verdict Foundation, supposes that the same day the court will pronounce the judgment.