Mikheyev v. Russia

Mikheyev v. Russia
Court	European Court of Human Rights
Date decided	26 January 2006
Citation(s)	77617/01
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]

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.^[3] 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][3][4][5] 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.^[6]

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).

According to Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, torture with electric shocks is common in Russia.^{[7][8][9][10][11]}

References

1. ^ Police Are at War With the Russian People by Yulia Latynina
2. ^ ^{a b} (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. ^ ^{a b} Nemtsova, Anna (March 13, 2006). "A Phone Call to Putin. How do Kremlin authorities deal with whistle-blowers? Silence them". Newsweek. http://www.newsweek.com/id/46885. 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.'" 
4. ^ "My Only Thought Was To Escape The Torture". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2007/10/2b0c6a68-453a-4af9-8586-8bc997c3ab81.html. 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." 
5. ^ Walker, Martin (January 31, 2006). "Putin reveals his need for G8". United Press International. http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-12555302_ITM. 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." 
6. ^ Russia Report: February 6, 2006 by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
7. ^ Torture and ill-treatment, Amnesty International
8. ^ Amnesty International report
9. ^ Justice Report by Amnesty International
10. ^ UN Committee against Torture Must Get Commitments From Russia to Stop Torture, Human Rights Watch
11. ^ Torture in Russia: "This man-made Hell", Amnesty International

External links

• ECHR Judgment

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