Strasbourg court awards compensation to Perm prisoners

The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg has upheld a claim (“Dedovskiy and Others v. Russia”) by seven prisoners from a penal colony in the Perm region and awarded each of them 10,000 euros in compensation. The judges recognised that the criminals’ rights were violated during a special forces operation, Interfax reports.

The decision of the Strasbourg court was described by Anatoly Kovler, the judge at the European Court of Human Rights representing Russia. Speaking at the Russian Academy of Justice, he stated that, in the opinion of the Court of Human Rights, the prisoners were indeed brutally beaten by special forces soldiers.

It is clarified that the investigation into the beating of the prisoners by special forces personnel was terminated due to the impossibility of identifying the individuals who violated the rights of the criminals. This is linked to the fact that the special forces were wearing masks.

Whether the prisoners were beaten during their arrest, or whether they received their bodily injuries while already in detention, is not clarified in the news agency’s report.