Rostov court obliges the military to pay 244,000 to the father of a killed soldier

Yesterday, June 22, the Lenin district court of Rostov-on-Don considered the law suit on compensating moral and material damage, filed by the "Mother's Rights" foundation on behalf of the father of Alexander Artiushin, a regular army soldier from Moscow who had been killed in the army.

As the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed at the "Mother's Rights" foundation, Alexander Artiushin (born in 1983) was called up to the army on December 5, 2001. He was sent to serve in the military unit No 42839 in Chechnya. In January 2003, Alexander was beaten by his fellow-soldier S. Kozhin. The wound inflicted by a metal bar from the bed soon got festered, and sepsis started, resulting in Artiushin's death on January 19-21, 2003. The father does not know the exact date when his son died because there are three different documents with different dates of his death.

On December 16, 2003, the Bataisk garrison military tribunal of Rostov region found Kozhin guilty of beating Alexander Artiushin and gave him a conditional penalty.

The "Mother's Rights" foundation demanded that the Command of the North-Caucasian Military District (the military unit No 42839 where the tragedy took place is not a legal entity) should compensate his father the moral damage inflicted by the death of the son and the material damage connected with the installation of a tombstone.

The interests of the father of the diseased were represented in court by Maria Gmyria, lawyer of the "Mother's Rights" foundation. She explained the attitude of human rights activists: in conformance with the RF Federal Law "On the Status of Servicemen ," the commanders of military units are responsible for ensuring safety in holding manoeuvres, other elements of military training, performing other duties of military service, as well as responsible for providing a system of measures aimed at ensuring safety of military service. The command of military units must be responsible for the life and health of its soldiers. In the opinion of Maria Gmyria, the circumstances of the death of Sasha Artiushin testify to the fact that the officials of the North-Caucasian Military District (NCMD), represented by the command of the unit, failed to create favourable conditions of the military service and to minimize its hazardous factors, as prescribed by the law.

According to the "Mother's Rights" foundation, S. Kitanin, representative of the military unit No 42839, declared in court that the death of Alexander Artiushin was "a concourse of circumstances," and the military unit should not be made liable for the accident. A. Kondratiev and N. Koval, representatives of the NCMD Command, said that there was no fault of officers in the death of Alexander Artiushin, therefore the Command of the North-Caucasian Military District should not compensate the father of the diseased any moral damage.

Judge E. Abramova, having heard the arguments of the parties, obliged the Command of the North-Caucasian Military District to compensate the father of the diseased soldier moral damage in the amount of 200,000 roubles and material damage - 44,000 roubles, inflicted by his son's death.