European Rights Court Rules Against Russia
21 October 2005 -- The European Court of Human Rights today ordered Russia to compensate a former prisoner for repeatedly locking him up in darkness for more than 23 hours a day. The court says that kind of treatment is inhuman.
The court also found Russian authorities denied Ilya Romanov the right to a fair trial, and ordered Russia to pay him $6,000.
The court said conditions at the jail he was in breached the international human rights treaty, but noted the prison has since been adequately improved.
The ruling comes after Romanov, who had been jailed for marijuana possession, sued Russia for violating his human rights.
(AP)