Today the Lazarevsky District Court of Sochi City has held its first sitting concerning the case of the “mopping-up” operations in the Druzhba youth camp realized by the OMON (special police forces) personnel in summer 2006. Marina Rubtsova, a federal judge, presided the court’s sitting. Councilor of justice Elena Barsukova, a prosecutor from the department of public prosecutors of the Krasnodar Regional Prosecutor’s Office spoke for the prosecution. Here we need to mention that the pretrial investigation had been carried out by a district prosecutor’s office.

All the sixteen persons who had been declared victims were present at the sitting.

As one of the defense lawyers failed to appear because he was engaged in another trial the court adjourned the hearings and set for 10 a.m. 20 March 2007. The court also ruled to summon a lawyer on duty in case the defense lawyer fails to appear again.

Chairman of the Nizhny Novgorod Regional NGO Committee Against Torture Igor Kalyapin (tel.: +79519026539) is present at the trial as observer.