You may remember that in March the Mariy El representation of the Committee Against Torture received an application form Konstantin Almakayev, resident of the village of Sovietsky. According to Konstantin, on November 11, 2010 he met his friend who had completed his service in the Russian Armed Forces. The youngsters had a walk and went back home, having agreed to meet later in a café. In the evening Konstantin, his friend and a couple of other guys came to the café. Near the entrance they saw several men who were intoxicated and aggressive and decided to go to a different place. As they approached the main village square they saw the men that had been standing at the café entrance running after them. The men started saying that they guys had blocked the road and were impeding traffic. Then one of the men kicked Almakayev in the chest. Later Almakayev learnt that the man who had hit him was a local SPF officer. Konstantin fell on the ground, hit his head against the asphalt and lost consciousness. When he came to himself he could hardly understand what was going on around him. His friends lifted him up and brought home. Almakayev spent two days in bed and got up only to go to the toilette.
On November 14, 2010 Almakayev had to go to the Military Conscription Office. He came to the Conscription Office in his village and was transported to a recruiting station in Yoshkar-Ola. As Konstantin had a severe head ache, he asked doctors to examine him. The doctors decided that the young man was fit for military service. Konstantin was told to go home and come again later for conscription.
On November 15, 2010 Almakayev went to district hospital and was admitted with a dispiriting diagnosis – closed craniocerebral injury, fracture of the parietal and frontal bones, brain contusion. On December 21, 2010 he had a surgery – right skull trephination, elimination of a chronic epidural hematoma in the right temporal region, drainage of the subdural cavity. Almakayev is now acknowledged disabled of the 3rd degree.
The investigative authorities refused to instigate criminal proceedings under Almakayev’s application filed in the context of the public investigation carried out by the Mariy El representation. The investigator questioned the SPF officer who stated that he had not beaten anyone and had appeared in the square because there had been a quarrel among youngsters. Recruiting station doctors claimed that they had examined Almakayev because he had been complaining of a headache, but they had not revealed any injuries.
During the public investigation under Almakayev’s application the representation staff filed an address to the Russian Ombudsman’s Office (V.P. Lukin) asking it to assist Almakayev in restoring his rights violated by the denial of medical assistance by doctors of the recruiting station of the Mariy El Republican Military Conscription Office. The address was forwarded for resolution to Mariy El prosecutor A.G. Mikhoparkin. The prosecutorial check concluded that theMariy El Republican Military Conscription Office head and chief doctor of the Republican Clinical Hospital had violated p. 22 of the Regulation on military medical examination, according to which the main task of medical examination prior to enlistment is to exclude individuals not fit for medical service for health reasons.
Having studied the materials of the prosecutorial check, the Mariy El representation has lodged two suits (for 100 000 rubles each) in Almakayev’s interests with the Yoshkar Ola city court. The claims are aimed to compensate for moral damage inflicted by unlawful actions of the Mariy El Republican Military Conscription Office head and chief doctor of the Republican Clinical Hospital, the respondent is the Russian Finance Ministry represented by the Federal Treasury Administration for Mariy El and Mariy El Republican Finance Ministry.
Specialists of the Committee Against Torture intend to make the state compensate moral damage to Konstantin.