The procedure of the Public Monitoring Committee for the Orenburg region (PMC) cannot be an obstacle for its members to perform their duties when visiting the detention facilities. This decision has been passed today by the Civil Board of the Orenburg Region Court chaired by judge Irina Selyutina who satisfied the appellate complaint of PMC member Vyacheslav Dyundin against the decision of the court of the first instance, which previously had dismissed the human rights defender’s complaint against the prohibition to visit the temporary detention facility under the Department of Interior of Orsk.
(Photo: members of PMC for the Orenburg region Timur Rakhmatulin, Vyacheslav Dyundin, Albina Mudarisova, Dmitry Dimitriyev)
On 19 February 2015 members of the Public Monitoring Commission for the Orenburg region notified the Department of Interior for the Orenburg Region, as it is required by Federal law №76 «On Public Monitoring», about their planned visit of the temporary detention facility under the Department of Interior of the Orenburg Region. On the next day, having travelled 280 km, the PMC members Vyacheslav Dyundin, Albina Mudarisova and Dmitry Dmitriyev arrived from Orenburg to conduct public monitoring of the local detention facility. However, the human rights defenders have been prevented from performing their work. Deputy head of the temporary detention facility Yury Korshikov in his conversation with the public monitors said that he would have granted them access, that he had «nothing to hide», but that he received an order from his management not to do it. Korshikov refused to identify these persons from his management. In their turn, the members of the Commission drew an act on hindering them from carrying out their work.
Having considered this refusal to be illegal, Vyacheslav Dyundin complained against it to the Sovetsky District Court of Orsk. On 11 March of this year judge Andrey Shidlovsky dismissed this complaint, justifying his decision by stating that the Deputy Head of the Temporary Detention Facility had a right to deny access of the public monitors to the temporary detention facility since they had not agreed their visit with the Chairman of the Public Monitoring Commission as it is prescribed in the procedure of the Public Monitoring Commission.
Appellate complaint have been submitted against this decision of the District Court.
Today, in the course of its examining, judge Irina Selyutina suggested that Yury Korshikov identified the legal norm which would enable him to deny access of the PMC members to the Temporary Detention Facility. However, the defendant failed to come up with a clear answer, then the judge pointed the attention of the participants of the court session at the complete list of grounds for denying access of the PMC members, provided by Article 17 of Federal law №76 «On Public Monitoring» and noted that there was no ground there that would justify the denial of access by peculiarities of the procedure of regional PMCs.
Having listened to the parties the Civil Board of the Regional Court of the Orenburg Region satisfied the appellate complaint of Vyacheslav Dyundin, having declared illegal the prohibition of the human rights defenders to visit the temporary detention facility under the Department of Interior of Orsk. In addition 300 roubles have been collected from Mr.Korshikov, which the plaintiff spent on state duty.
PMC member Albina Mudarisova comments on the situation that established in the region: «For a long time we have been prevented from conducting our duties as members of PMC, denying access to detention facilities, motivating it by the fact that the Chairman of regional PMC Aleksandr Yegorov did not authorize this. Today the court, having satisfied the complaint of our colleague Vyacheslav Dyundin, pointed at the fact that all the members of the PMC have equal rights, irrespective whether a PMC member is the Chairman or not».
«Thus, we defended our right to conduct public monitoring and unconstrained visiting temporary detention facilities regardless of the willingness of the PMC Chairman», – emphasized Dmitry Dimitriyev.