ECHR combines 7 claims of Bolotnaya Case defendants into 1 procedure

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) brought together seven claims of the Bolotnaya Case defendants into a single procedure that was called ‘Akimenkov and six against Russia’ (including Belousov and Kosenko) and gave it priority, as lawyer Dmitry Agranovskiy told Itar-Tass. He noted that the ECHR sent a letter to the Government of the Russian Federation on 22 pages, in which it asked the Russian authorities 26 questions. The applicants in their claims point to the ‘inhuman conditions of detention, illegal arrests and extension of them within the framework of the Bolotnaya Case investigation, as well as inhuman conditions during the trial’. Applicants ask the ECHR to oblige the Russian Federation to take actions to remedy the violations and to pay compensation of EUR100,000 to each. The Zamoskvoretsky district court of Moscow began the hearing of the criminal case on riots on Bolotnaya Square in Moscow on May 6, 2012.