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Finance Ministry to Pay for Torture
A former terrorism suspect has won 5 million rubles in moral damages, the full amount demanded by the plaintiff, in the Sovetsky District Court in Makhachkala, Dagestan, for illegal arrest and police torture. Khanali Umakhanov was arrested in connection with the terrorist act that took place in the Dagestani city of Kaspiisk on May 9, 2002. A separate case of material loss will also filed to recover the costs of preparing for this case.
Umakhanov, then 26, was arrested in Moscow in February 2003. He was accused of several criminal acts beside the blast in Kaspiisk, which occurred during a public holiday and killed 43 people. Four years, later, after several trials, the Supreme Court of Russia declared him innocent of all charges. At the request of Umakhanov's mother, the details of the torture he experienced during his confinement will not be published. It left the former freestyle wrestling champion an invalid.
No charges have been filed against any of the law enforcement personnel involved in the case, in spite of complaints filed by Umakhanov with the prosecutor's office. The suit was filed against the Dagestani finance ministry because law enforcement agencies do not have money budgeted for the payment of damages.
The largest judgment ever awarded in a suit against a government agency went to Konstantin Mirzoyants, who was held for four years on suspicion of the murder of journalist Dmitry Kholodov before being found innocent and released. The Moscow District Military Court awarded him 9.8 million rubles in December 2006. The record for an award by the European Court of Human Rights is ˆ250,000 (8.6 million rubles) in January 2006 to Alexey Mikheev of Nizhny Novgorod, who was the victim of police torture.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Oct. 11, 2007
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