Постановление Европейского суда по правам человека от 29.07.2010 <Дело Копылов (Kopylov) против России» [англ.]

's allegations against them to be verified and their role in the events complained of to be established.
139. The Court also observes that progress in the investigation was slow and it spanned over more than three years. Thus, the only investigative measure conducted before the end of 2001 was the questioning of two police officers involved in the applicant's arrest. The medical examination of the applicant was performed in January to March 2002, while the applicant and his cellmates were questioned for the first time in May and June 2002, that is more than a year after the alleged ill-treatment. No further action was taken until 2003 when one of the investigators accused by the applicant and counsel for the applicant were questioned and the charges were brought against the police officers of Dolgorukovskoe police station. Several more investigative measures were taken in 2004, but it appears from the documents in the Court's possession that during that same year the investigation was prone to delays, the investigative authorities sometimes remaining idle for months. Further delays accumulated during the trial stage that started in March 2005 and lasted for more than two and a half years, to which was added a new six-month period of inactivity between the pronouncement of the first-instance judgment and the appeal hearing. As a result of those delays the police officers were not finally convicted and sentenced until June 2008, that is about seven years after their wrongful conduct. The Court is not convinced by the Government's argument that the length of the criminal proceedings was accounted for by the complexity of the case. It considers that their inordinate duration was due to the substantial delays in the conduct of the investigation and trial that were attributable to the authorities. This manner of proceeding appears unacceptable to the Court, considering that the case concerned a serious instance of police violence and thus required a swift reaction by the authorities (see Nikolova and Velichkova, cited above, § 59).
140. Finally, with regard to the sentences imposed on the police officers, the Court reiterates that while there is no absolute obligation for all prosecutions to result in conviction or in a particular sentence, the national courts should not under any circumstances be prepared to allow ill-treatment to go unpunished. This is essential for maintaining public confidence, ensuring adherence to the rule of law and preventing any appearance of tolerance of or collusion in unlawful acts (see {Okkali} v. Turkey, No. 52067/99, § 65, ECHR 2006-XII (extracts)). The important point for the Court to review, therefore, is whether and to what extent the national authorities have done everything within their powers to prosecute and punish the police officers responsible for the ill-treatment and whether they have imposed adequate and deterring sanctions on them. For this reason, although the Court should grant substantial deference to the national courts in the choice of appropriate sanctions for ill-treatment by State agents, it must exercise a certain power of review and intervene in cases of manifest disproportion between the gravity of the act and the punishment imposed. Were it to be otherwise, the States' duty to carry out an effective investigation would lose much of its meaning, and the right enshrined by Article 3, despite its fundamental importance, would be ineffective in practice (see {Gafgen}, cited above, § 123; Atalay v. Turkey, No. 1249/03, § 40, 18 September 2008; and, mutatis mutandis, Nikolova and Velichkova, cited above, § 62).
141. The Court observes that the Russian Criminal Code provided that the offence committed by the police officers was punishable by three to ten years' imprisonment (see paragraph 100 above). However, the domestic courts chose to impose on the police officers sentences that were below the statutory minimum and to su

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