Decided 26 January 2006 | End date January 26, 2006 | |
Citation(s) Case 77617/01, ECLI:CE:ECHR:2006:0126JUD007761701 Judge(s) sitting Christos Rozakis (Greece)Loukis Loucaides (Cyprus)Peer Lorenzen (Denmark)Snejana Botoucharova (Bulgaria)Anatoly Kovler (Russia)Khanlar Hajiyev (Azerbaijan)Dean Spielmann (Luxembourg) Ruling court European Court of Human Rights | ||
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. The case was brought forward by Russian NGO Committee Against Torture.
Contents
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. The abuse included administering electric shocks to Mikheyev's earlobes - the torture called "a phone call to Putin" by the torturers (Russian: звонок Путину). 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.
Judgment
In the 2006 ruling, the European Court held unanimously that there had been:
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.