Today we got to know that Valeriy Maksimenko, Nizhny Novgorod region prosecutor, filed a supervisory declaration in respect of the Balakhna city court decision of November 23, 2007 after conducting a check upon the application of the Committee against Torture. You may remember that last November the Balakhna city court stopped the criminal proceedings against officersof the Balakhna Department of Internal Affairs: Konstantin Shapovalov who had committed four crimes under article 285 of the RF Criminal Code, Andrey Sermavbrin and Nikolay Kryukov who had both committed crimes falling under article 285 of the RF CC (abuse of official powers).

In course of trial defendants Shapovalov, Kryukov and Sermavbrin plead guilty and admitted they had taken unlawful action, in particular, had practiced violent treatment of victims Marychev, Dartsov, Suslov, Alyasev whose interests are represented by the Committee against Torture.

In its judgment the court agreed with the viewpoint of the Balakhna Prosecutor’s office and shifted from cl.a of art.286 of the RF CC to p.1 of art.285 of the RF CC in qualifying the actions of the accused and stopped the criminal proceedings on the grounds provided by p.1 art.75 of the RF CC.

At the same time if you analyze the materials of the criminal case against Sermavbrin, Kryukov and Shapovalov, it becomes evident that these people did not volunteer to confess their guilt, did not contribute to crime solution and denied their guilt.

The above mentioned circumstances taken in aggregate provide for the conclusion that the decision of the Balakhna city court to stop the proceedings was unlawful and unfounded.