The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation compelled the Ministry of the Interior to pay 2 million rubles to the family of a young man who died after the examination at the Police Special Force (OMON)

News

05 February 2018

Today, on 5 February 2018, the Judicial Division for Civil Cases of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation compelled the Ministry of the Interior of Russia to pay 2 million rubles as a compensation for moral damage to the relatives of Maksim Yadykov who died after the examination fight when he tried to get employed by the Police Special Force in 2014.

(Maksim’s father, Anatoly Yadykov and human rights defender Dmitry Yalikov)
 
As we have previously reported, on 15 December 2014 Anatoly Yadykov and Rimma Yadykova applied to human rights defenders for legal assistance. According to the married couple, in September last year Maksim decided to join the Mari El Department of Interior Special Police Force. Having passed the medical examining board with conclusion «fit for service in Special Police Force», on 9 October he arrived at the police unit to pass an exam for physical training. On the same day at around 4 p.m. the young man’s parents received a call from an unknown number and someone informed them that Maksim felt bad during the exam, the ambulance was called, but «it’s nothing at all serious». However, in a while the Yadykov family received another call and this time they were informed that their son was in Yoshkar-Ola City Hospital in the state of coma. The young man’s parents who came to the medical institution were straight away informed that the case was very challenging and the surgery was ongoing.

On the next day at about 9 in the evening Maksim’s parents learned that their son died in hospital without regaining consciousness.

Later on, the forensic medical examination established that the young man’s death resulted from «a severe cerebral contusion with the brain compression with a left-side subdural hemorrhage, which developed due to a closed craniocerebral injury». According to the expert’s opinion, these injuries resulted from «a quadruple impact of a blunt object».

On 11 October 2014, the Yadykov family applied to the Investigative Department of Yoshkar-Ola Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee for the Republic of Mary El. During eight months, the Investigative Department conducted checks based on the results of which it issued four illegal refusals to initiate criminal proceedings. And only eight months after, on 22 June 2015, the criminal case was initiated based on Part 1 Article 109 of the Russian Criminal Code («infliction of death by negligence»).

On 22 February 2016, new investigator for this case Stanislav Solovyev passed a ruling on dismissal of the criminal case due to absence of the element of crime. «In the case under question the criminal justice case represented by guiltless harm-doing is present» – that was the opinion of the investigator.

At the same time, investigator Soloviev submitted a proposal to head of the Police Special Force for the Mary El Republic to eliminate the circumstances which make the crime possible. In his proposal, the investigator suggested to «consider adding compulsory attendance of a medic (graduate medical education) to the rules of morale and endurance testing for Police Special Force service together with the check of a candidate’s general well-being and arterial blood pressure at all the stages of the testing, i.e. immediately prior to it, in the breaks between the rounds and immediately after its completion». In addition, the investigator suggested considering holding Deputy Head of the Republican Special Police Force liable since he failed to take adequate measures for proper organizing and conducting the testing.

In their turn, Maksim Yadykov’s parents and brother applied to the Yoshkar Ola City Court with a lawsuit against the Republican and the Federal Ministry of the Interior on compensation of moral damage inflicted to them by the death of their close relative. The interests of the Yadykov family in court were represented by lawyer of the Committee Against Torture Dmitry Yalikov.

On 17 November of last year, the Yoshkar Ola City Court compelled the Ministry of the Interior of the Russian Federation to pay two million rubles to relatives of Maksim Yadykov.

During the examination of the case representative of the Ministry of the Interior Sergey Kireyev, who asked the court to dismiss the claims under the lawsuit, entered the minutes of the meeting, conducted with regard to investigator Solovyev’s submission, to the case. The result of this meeting was that none of the Special Police Force was brought to disciplinary action. However, as Kireyev pointed out, the Republican Ministry of the Interior applied to the Ministry of the Interior of Russia with a suggestion of obligatory presence of a medical worker with a higher post graduate education during the sparring fights.

Representative of the Yoshkar Ola Prosecutor’s Office Valeria Pavlova partially supported the claims under the lawsuit and asked to satisfy the claims to the Ministry of the Interior of the Mari El Republic.

As a result, on 17 November of 2016 the court held that the Yadykov family claims shall be satisfied partially and compelled the Ministry of the Interior of the Russian Federation to pay compensation in the amount of two million rubles to mother, father and brother of the deceased.

The Ministry of Interior of Russia, having disagreed with the court ruling, applied an appellate appeal to the Supreme Court of the Republic of Mari El. On 28 February 2017, the judicial panel quashed the ruling of the court of the first instance, having satisfied the appellate appeal of the defendant.

On 26 June of last year, the Supreme Court of the Republic of Mari El, having examined the cassation complaint of human rights defenders, who did not agree with the ruling of the Judicial Panel, failed to establish the guilt of the Ministry of the Interior and dismissed the claim for compensation to the relatives of deceased Maksim Yadykov.

Lawyers with the Committee Against Torture, representing the interests of Maksim’s relatives, applied another cassation complaint to the Judicial Panel in Civil Matters of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation. In this complaint, human rights defenders asked to uphold the ruling of the City Court on compensation of moral damage.

On 25 December of last year, the Judicial Panel of the Supreme Court of Russia scheduled a court hearing to examine this complaint. The Supreme Court deemed that the “plaintiffs’ arguments cited in the cassation complaint deserve attention, since they provide evidence of significant violation of norms of substantial law and procedural law, influencing the outcome of the case, without rectifying which it is impossible to protect the violated rights and legal interests of the applicants”.

Today, the Judicial Division for Civil Cases of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, having examined the cassational appeal, upheld the ruling of the Yoshkar-Ola City Court of the Republic Mari El on awarding two million rubles to Maksim Yadykov’s relatives as a compensation for moral damage.

Подтвердите, что вам есть 18 лет