The European Court of Human Rights awarded 20 thousand euros each to Nizhny Novgorod residents Olga Maslova and Sergei Lyapin, who suffered from the actions of security forces in 1999 and 2008. The Team Against Torture reports this.
According to human rights activists, in 1999 Maslova was summoned to the police department for questioning as a witness. There, three prosecutors and a police officer, as the woman said, raped and beat her. A case was opened against the security forces, but it was suspended more than once.
None of the defendants was punished because the deadline for bringing the perpetrators to justice had expired. At the same time, back in 2008, a court in Strasbourg declared the investigation into Maslova’s case ineffective.
Lyapin was detained in April 2008 while collecting scrap metal near one of the garages. At the police station, a Nizhny Novgorod resident was beaten and subjected to electric shocks. Doctors diagnosed him with a concussion, bruises and thermal burns on both hands.
The Investigative Committee refused to open a case of abuse of power at least 10 times. The ECHR found that Lyapin was indeed tortured, and a case was opened in 2016. Nizhny Novgorod police officer Oleg Kashtanov was sentenced to three years of probation and released from punishment due to the expiration of the statute of limitations. The case against the second defendant, ex-policeman Vitaly Starikov, was dropped.