Mikheyev v. Russia

Mikheyev v. Russia
Court European Court of Human Rights
Decided 26 January 2006
Citation(s) Case 77617/01, ECLI:CE:ECHR:2006:0126JUD007761701
Court membership
Judge(s) sitting Christos Rozakis (Greece)
Loukis Loucaides (Cyprus)
Peer Lorenzen (Denmark)
Snejana Botoucharova (Bulgaria)
Anatoly Kovler (Russia)
Khanlar Hajiyev (Azerbaijan)
Dean Spielmann (Luxembourg)

Mikheyev v. Russia was a 2006 court case involving Alexey Mikheyev and the Russian Federation. The case became notable as "the first serious victory in a case of torture" brought to the European Court of Human Rights against Russian government.[1][2] The case was brought forward by Russian NGO Committee Against Torture.[3]

Case

Mikheyev (himself a traffic police officer) was falsely accused of murder (his alleged victim later turned out to be alive and well) and tortured in police custody in order to extract a confession to the alleged crime.[4] The abuse included administering electric shocks to Mikheyev's earlobes - the torture called "a phone call to Putin" by the torturers (Russian: звонок Путину).[2][4][5][6] After surviving the torture, Mikheyev jumped out of a third-floor window to escape his tormentors; the fall resulted in a spinal cord injury that rendered him a paraplegic.[7]

Judgment

In the 2006 ruling, the European Court held unanimously that there had been:

  • a violation of Article 3 (prohibition of torture) of the European Convention on Human Rights concerning the treatment inflicted on the applicant while in police custody;
  • a violation of Article 3 concerning the failure to conduct an effective investigation into the applicant’s fall from a police station window on 19 September 1998;
  • a violation of Article 13 (right to an effective remedy).

Mikheyev was thus awarded 250,000 Euro in damages.

According to Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, torture with electric shocks is common in Russia.[8][9][10][11][12]

References

  1. ↑ Police Are at War With the Russian People by Yulia Latynina
  2. 1 2 (in Russian) "Phone Call to Putin: A new method that the cops love. In the war against your own people, all tactics are good.", Novaya Gazeta, 9 August 2004
  3. ↑ "No torture — Common information". www.pytkam.net. Retrieved 2015-07-10.
  4. 1 2 Nemtsova, Anna (March 13, 2006). "A Phone Call to Putin. How do Kremlin authorities deal with whistle-blowers? Silence them". Newsweek. Retrieved 2009-01-19. In one recent landmark ruling, the court awarded €250,000 to Aleksei Mikheyev of Nizhny Novgorod, falsely accused of rape and murder in 1998. Investigators had extracted a written confession by administering electric shocks to Mikheyev's earlobes, a torture method widely known as 'a phone call to Putin.'
  5. ↑ "My Only Thought Was To Escape The Torture". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Retrieved 2009-01-21. Torture is so common in Russian police stations that the method used on Mikheyev even has a name: the "phone call to Putin." It consists of inflicting electric shocks through wires attached to the victim's earlobes.
  6. ↑ Walker, Martin (January 31, 2006). "Putin reveals his need for G8". United Press International. Retrieved 2009-01-19. The first was that when Russian police torture a suspect these days, they attach electric wires to the victim's earlobes, turn on the current and call it a "zvonok Putinu," a phone call to Putin.
  7. ↑ Russia Report: February 6, 2006 by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
  8. ↑ Torture and ill-treatment Archived 2009-04-16 at the Wayback Machine., Amnesty International
  9. ↑ Amnesty International report Archived 2009-04-16 at the Wayback Machine.
  10. ↑ Justice Report by Amnesty International Archived 2009-03-25 at the Wayback Machine.
  11. ↑ UN Committee against Torture Must Get Commitments From Russia to Stop Torture, Human Rights Watch
  12. ↑ Torture in Russia: "This man-made Hell", Amnesty International

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