Photo: Sergey Sankin.

   Today the judgment of the Sormovskiy district court (Nizhny Novgorod) dated June 17, 2008 sustaining the claim of lawyer Yuriy Sidorov from the Committee against Torture acting in the interests of Mr. Sergey Sankin who had been battered by the police of the Sormovskiy district in 2000 entered into force.

You may remember that according to the judgment, the defendant under the claim – the Finance Ministry of Nizhny Novgorod region – is to pay Mr.Sankin 1 million 137 thousand rubles at a time as compensation of damage to health, and 2 million rubles as compensation of moral damage. Besides, Sergey Sankin will receive 17 000 rubles monthly till April 2009.

The defendant did not appeal against the judgment within the period stipulated by law and the judgment entered into force. Thus, we can conclude that the state did not only acknowledge its obligations towards Mr.Sankin, but also demonstrated determination to fulfill them.

Today Mr.Sergey Sankin submitted the writ of execution to the defendant- the Finance Ministry of Nizhny Novgorod region.