MOSCOW, February 26 (RAPSI) - The Russian Government has sent a memorandum to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg to answer the claims of three defendants in the Bolotnaya case, attorney Dmitry Agranovsky told RAPSI. The complaint in question was filed with the ECtHR on December 19, 2013 by Denis Lutskevich, Alexei Polikhovich and Stepan Zimin.
“As before, the Government, in a twenty-page memorandum, denies all the accusations by the complainants and requests that the complaint be rejected as manifestly ill-founded under paragraph 3, Article 35 of the European Convention on Human Rights, including a complaint from Denis Lutskevich that he was beaten by the police during his arrest at the May 6 2012 protest,” Agranovsky said.
The attorney added that the questions by the ECtHR concerned the allegedly inhumane treatment of the defendants, and their supposedly unlawful arrest and extended detention.
The complaint from Lutskevich, Polikhovich and Zimin was the second Bolotnaya case related complaint submitted to the ECtHR. Last September, the court in Strasbourg accepted a complaint from Vladimir Akimenkov and six other defendants in the case.
Over 400 people were arrested and scores injured in the Bolotnaya Square protest that turned violent in May 2012. Dozens were later charged with inciting riots and using violence against law enforcement officers.