The ECHR awarded compensation to the defendant in the case of “Crimean terrorists” Gennady Afanasyev due to inhumane conditions of transportation

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) awarded Ukrainian Gennady Afanasyev, convicted in the case of “Crimean terrorists,” compensation of 2 thousand euros after complaints about the conditions of transportation of prisoners. This was reported by Krym.Realii with reference to human rights activist Ernest Mezak.

As Mezak clarified, the first complaint concerns conditions during the stage from the Voronezh region to the Komi Republic, the second concerns transportation within Komi.

The ECHR communicated Afanasyev’s complaint in July 2016. In his statement, Afanasiev indicated that the Russian authorities violated Articles 3 and 13 of the European Convention on Human Rights (prohibition of inhuman treatment and the right to an effective remedy). The Ukrainian spoke about the cramped conditions of the prison cells in the carriages (their area is 3.1-3.4 square meters), the low temperature and the rare supply of hot water.

The human rights organization Amnesty International in its report recognized the transfer to Russia as torture. “The conditions created for prisoners in carriages and prison vans allow Amnesty International to consider prisoners to be victims of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. In turn, the lack of information about their whereabouts during the transfer allows us to equate this to forced disappearance,” noted the human rights organization.

Afanasiev was sentenced to seven years in a maximum security colony in 2014. He was found guilty of participating in a terrorist attack (Part 2 of Article 205 of the Criminal Code); the case was considered in a special manner, since he confessed and testified against other defendants. At the trial of director Oleg Sentsov and anti-fascist Alexander Kolchenko, Afanasyev acted as a witness and refused to testify against them, talking about torture during interrogation.

On June 14, 2016, Afanasyev, together with his compatriot Yuri Soloshenko, was pardoned by the President of Russia; they were exchanged for two other Ukrainian citizens - Odessa journalists Vitaly Didenko and Elena Glishchinskaya, accused of separatism.