other remedies at his disposal including the right to compensation”. As a rule, to apply to the ECHR, the plaintiff should pass all the judiciary echelons (e.g. from district court to supreme court). The Russian authorities objected in legal proceedings due to fact that plaintiff's side did not comply with this requirement, but the court dismissed this, stating that “The verdict of November 30, 2005 referred to only fact of ill-treatment and did not consider supposed faults in investigation". Effects By the decision of the European Court of Human Rights, Mikheyev was awarded a money compensation of 250,000 euros. However, journalists state that this money did not help him get back on his feet or change his residential conditions as all the money went towards paying the medical bills for Alexey's many illnesses. Reaction of international organizations According to Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, torture with electric shock is common in Russia. The Human Rights Watch wrote in a report on Russia in 1999: The Amnesty International said: The ACAT (Action des chrétiens pour l’abolition de la torture) organization from France reference the Mikheyev case in a report about torture in Russia, and said: Public response The public response to the case in early years was not prominent, because access to information for the general public was provided mainly by television and print media as opposed to the Internet. As a response to the case, in 1999 the Committee Against Torture published an article online outlining the steps to fighting the use of torture in the police. The peak of public interest in the case was in 2005-2006. In November 2005, the officers Somov and Kosterin were sentenced to real of imprisonment, and in January 2006, the ECHR awarded Mikheyev compensation in the case of Mikheyev v. Russia in amount of EUR 250,000 (total). During these years, Mikheyev's case was highlighted by print media, online publications and television. In 2004, Alexey Mikheyev was on rehabilitation in Norway. His treatment was paid by a Norwegian fund for retired policemen and a Norwegian journalist who shot a story about Alexey for a local TV channel. References External links ECHR Judgment Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights European Court of Human Rights cases involving Russia Article 13 of the European Convention on Human Rights Law enforcement in Russia Torture in Russia