CCPR/C/126/D/2699/2015
The author was brought to the Kstovsk police department and was beaten there. On 24
January 2013, the investigation unit of the Kstovsk branch of the Investigation Committee
of the Russian Federation received statements verifying the beating inflicted on the author
by the police. On 4 February 2013, an investigator refused to open a criminal case in the
matter in the light of the absence of corpus delicti.1
2.2
On 22 May 2013, the author wrote to the non-governmental organization
“Committee against Torture”, claiming that he had been subjected to police violence on
several occasions and seeking legal aid.
2.3
On 8 August 2013, the deputy prosecutor of the city of Kstovsk annulled the
decision of the investigator dated 4 February 2013, having decided that the senior
investigator’s inquiry following the 24 January 2013 claim had been incomplete and
inadequate. The deputy prosecutor ordered the conduct of a new inquiry. On 15 August
2013, a senior investigator of the Kstovsk branch of the Investigation Committee of the
Russian Federation refused to open a criminal case. On 15 October 2013, the deputy
prosecutor of the Nizhegorodsk region annulled the decision of 15 August 2013 as unlawful
and groundless.
2.4
On 23 November 2013, a senior investigator of the Kstovsk branch of the
Investigation Committee of the Russian Federation refused to initiate a criminal case in the
absence of corpus delicti. The investigator based the decision on the statements of police
officers of the criminal department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Nizhegorodsk
region to the effect that no unlawful methods of investigation had been used against the
author and on the content of medical documents.
2.5
On 10 April 2014, an appeal was filed with the Kstovsk City Court of the
Nizhegorodsk region against the refusal, dated 23 November 2013, to open a criminal case.
On 24 April, the city court rejected the appeal.
2.6
The author claims that he was subjected to beatings, contrary to article 7 of the
Covenant. He was apprehended on 22 January 2013 on suspicion of having inflicted bodily
harm that resulted in death. He was beaten at the police station. The author claims that a
police officer named V. closed the door while another officer started kicking him on the
arms and feet. Following this, he was handcuffed and was tied tightly with a rope and kept
in a very uncomfortable position for an hour and a half. During that time, V. kicked him on
his back and in the area of his kidneys, demanding that he confess guilt. As a result, the
author suffered moral damages including physical pain in the area of his back, arms and
head. Later, he was brought to the investigator named B., who did not interrogate him.
Instead, B. entered into the record the written explanations and documents provided by V.
The lawyer called by B. did not identify himself to the author, and he countersigned all the
documents produced by the investigation without reading them. The author, scared and
fearing for his life, also countersigned all the documents. 2
2.7
On 23 January 2013, a lawyer designated by the investigation ignored the author’s
statements regarding the existence of marks on his head from beatings. The author was
subsequently released, but when he arrived at the home of his parents, his health
deteriorated and his mother called an ambulance. He informed the emergency personnel of
the beatings by the police. A police officer came later and recorded his claims.
2.8
Also on 23 January 2013, the author received a phone call from the investigator
named B., who asked him to go to the police station. Owing to his poor health, however,
the author did not go. Later the same day, the author was hospitalized.
2.9
On 24 January 2013, the three police officers who had participated in his beatings
took the author from the hospital to the police station. The author was beaten during the trip
1
2
2
On 4 February 2013, a senior investigator rejected the complaint. In a complaint to the prosecutor
dated 23 July 2013, the author complained about the decision of the investigator, pointing out inter
alia that the senior investigator did not question witnesses who would have been able to confirm his
health status prior to his detention on 22 January 2013.
After signing his initial confessions as a suspect, the author has signed several documents as an
accused.