Russian political activist Ildar Dadin has filed a privacy-protection lawsuit with the European Court of Human Rights against Russian authorities over the publication of footage showing him being beaten by prison guards.
Dadin's lawyer, Nikolai Zboroshenko, said on August 8 that a video shown by two major TV channels and posted on the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper's website was aired without Dadin's permission, calling it an invasion of privacy.
Earlier this year, a public Russian commission for complaints about media issues said that videos showing Dadin were used as propaganda targeting the activist and his supporters.
But a Moscow court refused to hear Dadin's lawsuit over the videos in June.
Dadin was sentenced to three years in prison in December 2015 after he was convicted under a controversial law that criminalizes participation in more than one unsanctioned public gathering in a 180-day period.
The punishment was later reduced to 2 1/2 years, and he was released in February after the Supreme Court threw out his conviction and ordered the case closed.
Dadin, the only person convicted under the law, was considered a political prisoner by major human rights groups.
His plight attracted additional attention last autumn when he alleged he and other inmates had been tortured and abused at a prison in Russia's northwestern region of Karelia.
