CAT/C/56/D/577/2013
2.2
On 24 November 2008, the complainant submitted a complaint about the police
officers’ physical assaults to the Interregional Investigation Department in Pyatigorsk. On
25 November 2008, the Department ordered a forensic medical examination of the
complainant, which confirmed his fractured rib and hearing impairment.
2.3
On 23 July 2010, the senior investigator of the Department dismissed the complaint
and decided not to initiate a criminal investigation into the alleged torture. The complainant
appealed and, on 22 October 2010, Pyatigorsk City Court declared the investigator’s
decision unlawful. It requested the director of the Department to remedy the situation.
Owing to the lack of progress in the investigation, the complainant submitted a new petition
to Pyatigorsk City Court. On 25 February 2011, the Court declared the investigator’s
inaction unlawful and requested the director of the Department to redress the violation of
the law.
2.4
On 13 October 2011, the complainant appealed to the Prosecutor General of the
Russian Federation, complaining about the lack of investigation into his complaint. The
appeal was transferred to the Pyatigorsk City Prosecutor who, on 26 December 2011,
concluded that the complainant’s physical injuries had possibly been inflicted by police
officers during his detention and requested a complementary investigation. On 2 January
2012, the Department again decided not to initiate criminal proceedings.
2.5
The complainant filed an appeal to the Supreme Court requesting the enforcement of
the 22 October 2010 decision of Pyatigorsk City Court. The Supreme Court forwarded the
appeal to Pyatigorsk City Court. In a letter dated 20 November 2012, Pyatigorsk City Court
requested the director of the Investigation Department to act upon the complainant’s
request and inform him about the decision. However, the complainant received no response.
2.6
The complainant notes that the decisions of Pyatigorsk City Court of 22 October
2010 and 25 February 2011 were not implemented. He sent additional complaints to the
Office of the Prosecutor General, the Chairman of the Investigative Committee and the
President of the Russian Federation, but received no response from them.
2.7
The complainant was convicted by Pyatigorsk City Court on 26 August 2009 for
committing crimes under articles 111.4 and 132.1 of the Criminal Code, and sentenced to
10 years’ imprisonment. He filed a cassation appeal, which was rejected on 11 November
2009 by the Judicial Panel on Criminal Matters of Stavropol District Court. In his cassation
appeal, the complainant alleged that he had been tortured until he agreed to write a
confession. The Court considered that claim to be a strategy to avoid punishment, since the
confession had been handwritten by the complainant during an interrogation in the presence
of the complainant’s lawyer, and neither the complainant nor the lawyer had raised any
objection at the time.
The complaint
3.1
The complainant submits that he has exhausted all available and effective domestic
remedies. He maintains that the national authorities have repeatedly failed to act on his
repeated requests to implement the decisions of Pyatigorsk City Court of 22 October 2010
and 25 February 2011.
3.2
The complainant maintains that the beatings he endured from the police officers
amounted to torture. In addition, he submits that the failure by the State party to prevent
those acts constitutes a violation of his rights. The complainant also maintains that the
failure of the State party to promptly, effectively and impartially investigate those acts
amounts to a separate violation of his rights.
3