edings were discontinued on 18 December 1999...
[T]he responsibility of an officer of the Ministry of the Interior for unlawful seizure of the company's fuel must be established by a final judgment in a criminal case. The commercial court, under Article 22 of the Code of Arbitration Procedure, does not have the right to assess the lawfulness or unlawfulness of the actions (failure to act) of the investigating authorities and the prosecutor's office.
The plaintiff did not submit any evidence showing that the seizure of the fuel by the officer of the Amur regional police department had been declared unlawful by a court and that [the officer] was responsible for the loss of the fuel.
The action must be dismissed because there was no fault on the part of the person who allegedly caused the damage."
15. The applicant appealed contending that the absence of a criminal conviction in respect of the officer had been irrelevant and that the respondent and the military unit had entered into a contract for storage of the fuel seized from the company. On 15 April 2002 the Appellate Division of the Commercial Court of the Amur Region upheld the judgment of 14 March 2002. The court stated inter alia as follows:
"Officer S acted lawfully when he inspected and seized the fuel... Having verified whether the fuel had been lawfully acquired, officer S decided not to bring criminal proceedings; on 2 February 1999 the Belogorsk deputy prosecutor set aside this decision and ordered an additional inquiry...
Officer S's failure to observe the procedure for inspection and transfer of the fuel for safe-keeping purposes has no direct causal link with the loss of the fuel..."
Lastly, the appeal court made the following observations in relation to the military unit:
"Military unit No. 62266 received the seized fuel for storage... in accordance with Article 84 § 2 of the RSFSR Code of Criminal Procedure. Under Article 906 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation the military unit became civilly liable {vis-a-vis} the plaintiff for the safe keeping of the fuel. Under Article 902 § 1 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, in the event of the loss of the fuel [the military unit] had to compensate the plaintiff for the resulting damage, unless otherwise provided by the law."
The appeal judgment became final on the same date.
16. On 11 June 2002 the Commercial Court of the Far Eastern Circuit, sitting as a cassation-instance court, upheld the judgments of 14 March and 15 April 2002. The court noted that the seizure of the fuel had been due to the absence, at the time, of any document confirming the company's title to it. The court held that the plaintiff had not proved that the investigator had been responsible for the damage caused.
D. Proceedings in the courts of general jurisdiction
(the civil courts)
17. In the meantime, on 29 April 2002 the applicant brought proceedings in the Blagoveshchensk Town Court of the Amur Region against, inter alia, the military unit. He claimed that the authorities' failure to return the fuel or to pay compensation be declared unlawful.
18. By a judgment of 12 November 2003 the Town Court rejected the applicant's claim. The court held that the fuel seizure had been carried out by officer S before any criminal proceedings had been initiated because of the need to conduct urgent investigative measures, namely a crime-scene inspection, in compliance with the RSFSR Code of Criminal Procedure (see paragraph 26 below). The Town Court also held as follows:
"As established in the judgment of the commercial court, during the seizure of the fuel the OPIUMIK company had not supplied any document to confirm the lawfulness of its acquisition. Later Mr P submitted a forged invoice, which gave rise to criminal proceedings against him. An
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