Today, on December 9, 2011 the Nizhny Novgorod regional court has quashed the verdict of guilty against senior operative investigator of the Criminal Investigation Department, police major Sergey Kuzmenkov. The verdict has been quashed because of its leniency. You may remember that Kuzmenkov is being tried for cruel tortures of Moskovsky district resident Pavel Guryanov in July 2010.

On September 28, 2011 the Moskovsky district court of Nizhny Novgorod convicted Sergey Kuzmenkov; according to the verdict, the policeman was cashiered from the service and disqualified from holding public office for 3 years. However, the district court decided not to deprive the perpetrator of liberty, and his sentence was suspended for 4 years. Such lenient punishment for tortures is absolutely inconsistent with the ECtHR case law which requires actual deprivation of liberty for such grave crimes.

Today the regional court has taken into account the arguments of INGO “Committee Against Torture” and the prosecutor listed in their cassation appeals and referred the case for retrial.