Rights defenders assess court ruling in case of mobilized soldier from Rostov Region

Command orders and medical records can be proofs in the lawsuit lodged by relatives of Igor Tatarov, a deceased mobilized military serviceman from the Rostov Region, but it is not always possible to obtain these documents.

His relatives have gone to court with a demand to recognize that he had died in the special military operation (SMO) zone in Ukraine, since without this recognition they can't receive due payments for his death. Relatives claim that Tatarov's death was the result of a trauma. In its turn, the Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) insists that he died of cerebral oedema.

Artyom Mugunyants, a military lawyer, believes that the dispute over the death reason can be resolved by an examination of Igor Tatarov's body.

The female human rights defender involved in defending the rights of military personnel has noted that Tatarov's parents will face problems in obtaining the due payments.

"Parents need to receive all the orders related to their son's service ... There must be a medical death certificate ... Besides, proofs are needed that he had visited a doctor and was in hospital. For absence of such documents, it will be extremely difficult for the parents to obtain the payments," she has noted, emphasizing the importance of relatives' cooperation with human rights defenders.

According to Ivan Chuvilyaev, the press secretary of the Fund "Go to the Forest", the MoD complicates in every possible way the process of receiving payments.