On 8 June 2010 at 10.00 a.m. the Supreme Court of Bashkiria will start trying the cassation appeal filed by lawyers of the policemen convicted in March this year for abuse of office committed during the police raid conducted by the Special Police Forces in December 2004 in Blagoveschensk.
On 5 March 2010 former head of the Blagoveschensk District Department of Internal Affairs Ildar Ramazanov was found guilty and sentenced to five and a half years of imprisonment conditionally, deputy commander of the 1st SPF company under the Bashkirian Ministry of the Interior Oleg Sokolov was sentenced to 4 years and 6 months conditionally, and deputy head of the City Public Security Police Oleg Mirzin was sentenced to 4 years conditionally. The convicts disagreed with the verdict and filed a cassation appeal. We would like to remind you that the Interregional Committee Against Torture was engaged into the public investigation of the Blagoveschensk events, helped the police abuse victims at the stage of judicial proceedings and still represents their interests.
Right now the Committee Against Torture is preparing civil suits for compensation of moral damage incurred by the crime to be filed against the RF Finance Ministry. Some suits have been won already thanks to the efforts of the Bashkirian representation of the CAT. You may remember that there are 341 victims altogether.