4.  The applicant was born in 1956 and lives in Nizhniy Novgorod.
5.  On 25 July 2002 the applicant’s 51-year-old brother Aleksandr Alekseyvich Anoshin was murdered by a policeman in the alcohol recovery centre of the Sovietsky District Police Department of Nizhniy Novgorod (медицинский вытрезвитель при Советском РУВД г. Нижнего Новгорода).
6.  Earlier that day, at about 7 p.m., he was stopped in the street by a police patrol as he was staggering home after having drinks with workmates. He was driven to the centre and left alone on a bed in a recovery room, as centre staff sat down to a game of cards nearby. One hour later Mr Anoshin started banging on the door and asking to be let out. Officer M., who together with his partner K. had just returned from patrol duty, got annoyed at the disruption, pushed Mr Anoshin away from the door and demanded that he calm down. Mr Anoshin fell on the bed and his head slammed against the wall. He then got to his feet and stepped towards the officer. Officer M. punched the applicant’s brother in the head and chest five times, and strangled him until he was unconscious using a squared piece of a broken wooden chair. M. laid Mr Anoshin down on the bed, and walked out. Officer An. watched this scene from the doorway.
7.  At 10 p.m. the applicant’s brother died of asphyxia.
8.  On 3 August 2002 the Prosecutor’s Office of the Sovietsky District opened a criminal investigation into the death. The investigation lasted four years and was handled in turn by at least six different investigators. They inspected the scene, conducted witness interviews, commissioned forensic reports, and staged reconstructions.
9.  The centre staff initially testified that they had found the applicant’s brother unwell in his bed, but then changed their story, saying that they had seen him hang himself using a bed sheet tied to the bars of his cell window. The forensic reports (on the cause of death, the nature of the injuries, the origin of blood on the wall and the presence of metallic traces on the sheet) refuted the hanging hypothesis, pointed to a violent death and incriminated the centre staff. However, the investigation was put on hold thirteen times because no credible suspect had been identified.
10.  In March 2006 M. was interviewed for the first time.
11.  By August 2006 the case against him had gone to trial.
12.  On 1 August 2008 the Sovietsky District Court of Nizhniy Novgorod convicted M. of murder and violent abuse of official power and sentenced him to fourteen years’ imprisonment and a three-year ban from police service. Neglect-of-duty charges brought against his two co‑defendants (Officers An. and Ag.) were dropped as time-barred.
13.  At the trial, M. was directly incriminated by An., Ag., and K. Officers An. and Ag. confessed that the suicide story had been a cover-up condoned by commanders of Sovietsky Police Department.
14.  On 14 November 2008 the Nizhniy Novgorod Regional Court upheld the sentence.
15.  The applicant and three of her brother’s four children each claimed from the State 3,000,000 Russian roubles (RUB – approximately 69,000 euros (EUR)) for emotional distress caused by the crime. On 25 May 2009 the Sovietsky District Court awarded RUB 150,000 (approximately EUR 3,400) to each claimant.
16.  On 14 August 2009 the Nizhniy Novgorod Regional Court upheld that decision.