The ECHR awarded 33 thousand euros to a minor Russian woman, but the girl will not be able to receive them

As compensation for the fact that a girl from Russia was interrogated more than 20 times in the case of sexual violence, the European Court of Human Rights awarded her more than 33 thousand euros. But the girl won’t get any money…

Consideration of the case in the ECtHR

The Strasbourg court recognized the ill-treatment of a twelve-year-old child, who, during the investigation, was interrogated 23 (!) times. During the investigation, it was found that the Russian investigators acted in accordance with the law of the Russian Federation, but violated the article of the European Convention on Human Rights prohibiting torture.

Project “Legal Initiative”, tells Air Force, represented the interests of a Russian girl. Project lawyer Anastasia Zakharova says:

“When investigating the applicant’s case, the authorities of the Russian Federation did not provide a gentle treatment that would take into account the interests of the child, and completely ignored her suffering and vulnerable position. The court also pointed to gaps in the legislation, the elimination of which could help avoid retraumatization of other children who suffered from sexualized violence” .

However, the amount awarded to the applicant will not be paid, since in May 2022 Russia unilaterally refused to comply with the decisions of the ECtHR, which did not enter into force until March 16, when the Russian Federation was expelled from the Council of Europe. The European Court of Human Rights considers that Russia is obliged to comply with decisions on all violations of human rights identified by the ECtHR that occurred before the denunciation of the Convention on Human Rights.

The consideration of the case lasted almost three years, the complaint was filed in August 2020. Four men were involved in the case of sexual violence committed against a girl from Tatarstan from the age of 6. All were found guilty and sentenced to prison terms.

Progress of the investigation

After the death of her mother, an eleven-year-old girl was sent to an orphanage, where she complained to a psychologist and educator about sexual abuse by an adult man. However, the gynecologist found no damage, and the interview records of the affected child were destroyed.

Later, her class teacher issued custody of the child and took the girl to a psychologist, where she again spoke about the violence she had experienced. Her adoptive mother did not dare to go to the police for six months and tell that the girl had suffered from sexual violence several years ago. She told the BBC:

“As an ordinary person, I was scared if there would be more harm or benefit from this at all. I understood that the girl would simply be dragged.”

In 2019, four criminal cases were initiated under paragraph “b” part 4 of Art. 132 of the Criminal Code (violent acts of a sexual nature against a person under the age of 14) based on the testimony of a girl. She had to recall all the horror and retell the circumstances of the sexual violence at least 23 times, although, as established, the investigation had a video recording of her testimony (but the first version of the recording was lost).

She was repeatedly interrogated by investigators and lawyers of the accused, experts and judges, themselves accused of violence. She was taken to the scene of alleged crimes, where the child, again plunged into the past nightmare, had to describe the situation, where and what kind of furniture was, show and tell how everything happened.

And was it worth it

During the investigation, the girl who suffered from adult violence again had to remember all the circumstances of the incident. It should be noted that before filing a complaint with the police, the guardian consulted with psychologists: how the investigation would affect the child. In response, they assured that they would not interrogate her much.

In 2019, with psychological exhaustion, the girl ended up in a neurological dispensary – she was diagnosed with depression. However, the interrogations continued. The law in the Russian Federation prescribes to open a separate criminal case for each accused if the crime was not committed in complicity, and in this case this increased the number of investigative actions by four.

Svetlana Elakova, head of the public organization of foster families in Tatarstan, told the publication that such situations put specialists in a strange position: there is no collegial interaction between the services of the investigative committee and psychologists. She says:

“The investigating authorities are on their own, and psychologists are on their own. And you wonder if you want to go to the police next time, or just want to make the child feel good and the parents feel good? I now have a clear feeling that we have a big state machine that grinds into flour, not thinking about who feels what, how it will affect in the future on a particular child, a particular family, on the future of this child.

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