On 4 August, the High Commissioner for Human Rights in the Russian Federation, who had previously appealed to the prosecution authorities in protection of rights of minor R. accused of a robbery, received an official reply from the Moscow East Administrative District Prosecutor’s Office. The letter said that the criminal prosecution of citizen R. was terminated for the lack of elements of a crime.

Earlier, relatives of the minor submitted to the High Commissioner a complaint against major infringements of the criminal procedure legislation during the preliminary investigation into the case. To protect constitutional rights of R., the High Commissioner submitted petitions to the Izmaylovskaya Inter-District Prosecutor’s Office and the Moscow East Administrative District Prosecutor’s Office to verify the data given in the complaint and take prosecutor’s response actions.

Following the judicial investigation and hearing of arguments, which took place on 14 January 2015, the public prosecutor submitted a withdrawal of charges and a petition to dismiss the criminal case for failure of evidence.

As a result, on 20 January 2015, Izmaylovskiy District Court ordered to drop criminal charges against citizen R. and recognised his right for rehabilitation.