CCPR/C/126/D/2410/2014
1.
The author of the communication is Yury Orkin, a national of the Russian
Federation born in 1964. He claims that the State party has violated his rights under articles
7, 9, 14 (1), (2), (3) (b), (d) and (e) and (5), and 15; and 2 (2) and (3) (a), read in
conjunction with 14 (5), of the Covenant. The Optional Protocol entered into force for the
State party on 1 January 1992. The author is not represented by counsel.
The facts as submitted by the author
2.1
On 13 September 2005, at 2 a.m., when the author was spending the night at his
friend’s apartment in Bogotol, several men in civilian clothes broke into the apartment
without identifying themselves. Upon entering, the men started beating the author and his
friend. Subsequently, the author was taken, handcuffed, to a nearby river where he was
subjected to further physical ill-treatment, including drowning, and psychological pressure
for more than three hours. The men, who then told the author that they were police officers,
asked him to confess to the killing of four people and wounding another one two days prior.
The author submits that the fact that he was taken to the river and beaten there was
confirmed by a witness during the trial. 1
2.2
After the author refused to confess to anything, at 5 a.m., he was taken to the local
police department where he was again beaten and held for 15 hours in handcuffs and wet
clothes, without food or water. At 7.30 p.m., the author was finally taken to the office of the
investigator of the Krasnoyarsk Region Prosecutor’s Office for formal questioning. The
author demanded to be given access to a lawyer and an explanation of the grounds on
which he was being detained. He also complained about the injuries, clearly visible on his
face, that he had sustained at the hands of the police officers. However, the investigator
ignored his injuries and told him that he would be detained without providing reasons. 2
2.3
The lawyer, called in and appointed by the investigator, was not interested in any
details of the author’s detention and ignored his injuries. On 15 September 2005, the author
was declared a suspect in another crime and at 10 a.m. on the same day taken to the
Bogotol District Court, which sanctioned his arrest.3 The author’s appointed lawyer failed
to attend the court hearing. A new lawyer was assigned to the author only on 20 September
2005. However, by then, the three-day period to appeal his arrest had already passed. 4
2.4
On 20 September 2005, the author submitted a complaint to Krasnoyarsk Region
Prosecutor’s Office about the injuries that he had sustained during his detention. On 21
September 2005, the author underwent a forensic medical examination, which revealed
injuries to his face, arms and legs that had been caused at least three to five days prior to the
examination. Based on the examination report, the author submitted a complaint to the
Krasnoyarsk Region Prosecutor’s Office claiming that the injuries had been caused by the
police. However, the complaint was examined by the same investigator who had
investigated his case and ignored his injuries when he had first complained about them on
the night of his arrest. On 14 October 2005, the Bogotol Inter-district Prosecutor’s Office
refused to open a criminal case against the police due to the lack of corpus delicti. The
Prosecutor’s Office determined that the police had acted within their powers while
detaining the author since he had resisted his arrest and had to be subdued, which had
caused his injuries.5
1
2
3
4
5
2
A copy of the court transcript shows that one of the witnesses during the author’s trial testified that he
had been beaten and threatened by the police with being “taken to the place where they had drowned
the author”.
The detention report signed by the investigator lists the reason for the author’s detention as “there are
other reasons to believe that the detained person was trying to escape”. The report contains no record
of any injuries.
The documents show that the Court sanctioned the author’s arrest only for the second crime.
A supervisory appeal was submitted by the author to the Krasnoyarsk Regional Court on 27 May
2013. On 8 October 2013, the Krasnoyarsk Regional Court denied the appeal.
Submitted documents show that the Prosecutor’s Office refused, on two more occasions, to open a
criminal case against the police after the refusals were quashed by higher ranked prosecutors. On 22
April 2014, the refusal was confirmed by the Bogotol District Court after being appealed by the
author.