MOSCOW. May 27 (Interfax) - The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that Russia pay out 4.3 million euro in damages to illegally prosecuted Russian citizens, Prosecutor General Yury Chaika said in Moscow on Tuesday.

"A large-scale inspection conducted by prosecutors last year uncovered numerous abuses of preliminary investigation procedures. The number of granted lawsuits seeking rehabilitation and the repayment of damages, suffered through the fault of law enforcement agencies, increased from 419 to 538, while the sum recovered from the Russian treasury exceeded 94 million rubles," Chaika told senior officials of the Prosecutor General's Office.

"The European Court recovered 4.3 million euro from the Russian treasury last year in favor of the claimants," he said.

More than a quarter of the rehabilitated persons were in custody, Chaika said.

"This is the result of investigators' flaws during preliminary investigation. Thousands of citizens are rehabilitated each year," he added.

"Criminal cases are sometimes opened without sufficient reason and the charges are often based exclusively on witnesses' accounts," Chaika said.

The prosecutor general urged his colleagues to take additional measures and tighten oversight over the observance of human rights and liberties, examine information on crimes, both committed and in the making, and better organize search operations.