MOSCOW, December 7 (RAPSI, Diana Gutsul) – Sergey Petryakov, the head of a human rights advocacy group “Zona Prava” (Law Zone), has asked Russia’s Prosecutor General to seek monetary redress in the amounts of compensations set by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) from the officers of the Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) directly responsible for failures to provide convicts with medical care, the activist told RAPSI on Wednesday.

According to Petryakov, over the last three years ECHR has upheld 19 complaints about inadequate medical treatment in prisons from applicants from across Russia. The total amount of money paid to the aggrieved parties from the state purse made 22.4 million rubles ($352,000); however, the FSIN officers to be directly blamed for the harm caused to applicants avoided responsibility.

Meanwhile, the activists said, the provision of high-quality medical care to convicts deteriorates year after year. This situation, Petryakov insisted, results in impunity and growing number of applicants turning to international courts thus increasing the burden on the Russian budget.

Petryakov noted that the federal budget for 2017 allocates 600 million rubles (almost $9.5 million) for compensating applicants turning to ECHR, the sum far from being sufficient according to legal experts.

At the same time, no FSIN officer has been financially liable, while the compensations are paid from the taxes on ordinary citizens, the rights advocate said.