With the assistance of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Russia a resident of Liski was reinstated in the right to access to public justice. The dismissal of the criminal case concerning murder of her son was revoked.

The High Commissioner received a petition from citizen M. who requested to assist in restoring justice and punishing the guilty of her son’s death. The petitioner complained against prejudiced treatment by the investigators and unjustified termination of the criminal case.

In September 2014, the son of the petitioner was severely beaten by unidentified individuals. As a result of the sustained head injuries the youth died. During the preliminary investigation the investigating bodies made a decision to close the criminal case. The petitioner could not accept it and repeatedly tried to appeal the decision, but failed to succeed.

Having studied the case, the High Commissioner discovered a number of violations of the criminal and criminal procedural legislation and petitioned the Voronezh Region Prosecutor’s Office.

The letter of reply read that according to the results of the inspection, a criminal case was instituted in respect of Part 4 of Article 111 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (deliberate infliction of serious harm to health, which resulted in the death of the victim through negligence). In addition, the officials guilty of the long-term inaction while considering the application for a crime have been held liable for it.

Thus, violations of the criminal procedural law were eliminated with the assistance of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in Russia.