MOSCOW, November 20 (RAPSI, Diana Gutsul) – Yaroslav Belousov, who had been convicted of participation in Moscow's 2012 Bolotnaya riots, turned to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe claiming Russia failed to comply with a decision of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), his attorney Dmitry Agranovsky told RAPSI on Monday.

According to Agranovsky, the Committee of Ministers is asked to take measures aimed to make Russia comply with the ECHR decision, since Russia’s Supreme Court, which reconsidered Belousov’s case this October, “has changed nothing.”

On October 4, The Supreme Court’s Presidium upheld the sentence in Belousov case; however, it abolished decisions extending his detention.

This March, the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights dismissed an application filed by Russia seeking to review the case of Belousov. Therefore, the ECHR ruling on two Belousov’s complaints took effect.

In October 2016, ECHR awarded €12,500 in compensation to Belousov. The court held that four articles of the European Convention on Human Rights including Article 3 (prohibition of inhuman or degrading treatment), Article 5 (right to liberty and security), Article 6 (right to a fair trial), Article 11 (freedom of assembly and association), had been violated by Russian authorities in his case.

Public protests erupted on Bolotnaya Square in May 2012. The rally culminated in clashes between protesters and the police. Over 400 people were arrested and scores were injured when protesters briefly broke through police lines.

Belousov, a student of the Moscow State University, was arrested in June 2012, charged with participation in mass disorder and using violence against officials and put in detention. He claimed that mass disorder had not taken place, insisting that there had only been isolated clashes between protestors and police. He also maintained that the object he had thrown struck nobody.

Belousov spent over 20 months in pretrial detention. His motions to vary the preventive measure have been repeatedly dismissed by court.

In February 2014, Moscow’s Zamoskvoretsky District Court found Belousov guilty along with seven other opposition activists and sentenced him to 30 months in prison. Later, his prison term was reduced to 27 months. He was released on September 8, 2014.

Belousov lodged the first application with ECHR in December 2012. The second complaint was brought into the court in September 2014.