The Fundamental Russian Law where the judiciary is identified as a separate branch is continuously violated by head of pretrial detention centre 1 of Krasnodar Mr. V.V.Nikolayev with connivance of the Krasnodarskiy Kray Prosecutor’s Office.
On August 5, 2008 the court released Mr.Atayev who was serving his sentence in pretrial detention centre 1 in Krasnodar. According to the court judgment, Mr. Atayev should have been executed immediately. The judgment was delivered to the pretrial detention centre the same day. However, the detention centre head suspended its execution by asking for a confirmation from the court. In reply to the request the deputy chairman of the court confirmed the judgment and underlined that the decision should be executed at once as for Mr. Atayev’s release. But this did not influence the situation. The pretrial detention centre head left Mr. Atayev in custody overtime by his sole will.
On August 7, 2008 Mr.Atayev’s lawyers submitted a claim to the head of the Krasnodarskiy Kray Administration of the Federal Penitentiary Service and also applied to the Committee against Torture. The Committee lawyers studied the application and concluded that Mr. Anatoliy Atayev was kept in custody unlawfully, and the actions of the SIZO head contained signs of three crimes: unlawful detention (art.301 of the RF Criminal Code), abuse of official powers (art.286 of the RF CC) and malicious non-execution of court judgment (art.315 of the RF CC). Human rights defenders sent an urgent cable to the Prosecutor’s Office of Krasnodarskiy Kray with the request to free Mr. Atayev immediately and notifying of the crime committed by the SIZO head. However, even the regional Prosecutor’s Office did not find anything unlawful or extraordinary in the fact that a free person had been detained for several days. Mr Atayev continues to serve the sentence set down by the pretrial detention centre head. Thus, the judiciary basically ceased to exist in Krasnodarskiy Kray. The Committee filed two complaint connected with unlawful actions of the detention centre administration and inaction of the regional Prosecutor to the RF Prosecutor General.
P.S: The press-service of the Committee against Torture underlines that in a similar situation the Nizhny Novgorod Prosecutor’s Office took immediate action to release Mr. Andronov who was kept in custody contrary to the court judgment. However, the state paid Mr. Andronov a compensation of 20 thousand roubles for one extra night spent in prison.