On 9 March 2007 at 2 p.m. the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Court disposes of the appeal of Marina Andronova against the decision of the Pavlovo City Court to take her son Dmitry Andronov into custody as judicial restraint. You may remember that on 26 February 2007 senior investigator of the Pavlovo City Prosecutor’s Office E.Yu. Glumov moved before the court to have D. Andronov arrested as judicial restraint. The motion said that “D.A. Andronov, being set free, can go into hiding from prosecution and judicial bodies and can again be engaged in criminal activity to which testifies the impudence and seriousness of the crimes he has committed”. The NN Committee Against Torture which is representing the Andronovs stated straight away that the arrest of minor Dmitry was unlawful and ungrounded. As you can see from the cited paragraph of the motion there is a de facto violation of the fundamental principle of presumption of innocence in respect of Mr. Andronov. In accordance with domestic and international laws, the Constitution, basic principles of human rights, the accused man to be innocent a priori, until his guilt is proved by the court. As yet there has been no verdict or even trial in respect of Mr. Andronov. So what crime did the prosecution officials from Pavlovo mean? What “impudence” and “criminal activity” did they speak of? Although the cynicism and awful legal illiteracy of certain prosecution officials from Pavlovo are common knowledge.

On 26 February 2007 judge M.A. Schennikov of the Pavlovo City Court of Nizhny Novgorod Region ruled to take D. Andronov into custody saying that “the court has serious reasons to believe that D.A. Andronov, being set free, can dodge the summons of the investigation and the court, can go into hiding from these bodies and can negatively influence the victim and the witnesses thereby impeding the investigation and can also commit a crime”. So the court upheld the absolutely unlawful and incoherent arguments of the prosecution officials.

From 26 February 2007 to 1 March 2007 Dmitry Andronov was kept in the temporary detention center of the Pavlovo District Police Station. Then, after the Regional Prosecutor’s Office had initiated criminal proceedings into the case of cruel treatment of Mr. Andronov by Pavlovo police and prosecution officials, he was transferred to the remand prison (SIZO 52/1) of Nizhny Novgorod where he is now being kept.