Vladimir Belashev, 47, was arrested in April 1998 on suspicion of taking part in the bombings of two statues near Moscow.
Belashev complained to the European Court of Human Rights that he had spent a year in an overcrowded detention facility and then a further four years awaiting sentence following trial. He eventually received 11 years behind bars for terrorism offenses.
In his complaint Belashev said in 2002-2003 while at the detention center he was subject to "severe overcrowding and such a shortage of beds that detainees were forced to sleep in shifts."
The press release from the EU court also cited "the excessive length of the criminal proceedings against him and the lack of a public hearing in his case."
Belashev's treatment "had been in itself sufficient to have caused distress or hardship of an intensity exceeding the unavoidable level of suffering inherent in detention, and to have aroused in him feelings of fear, anguish and inferiority capable of humiliating and debasing him," the court said.
The court ordered the Russian government also pay 200 euros in court costs.
