Today, on 26 February 2006 the NN Committee Against Torture has forwarded a statement to Prosecutor of Nizhny Novgorod Region V. Maksimenko on breaches of the law committed by law enforcement officials of Pavlovo City. In the statement the Committee requests the prosecutor to initiate an inner inquiry into the facts of violations of statutes and decrees of the General Prosecutor’s Office committed by the prosecutor and law enforcement officials of Pavlovo City; establish the reasons and conditions which caused these multiple violations and negligent fulfillment of their obligations by the prosecutor and law enforcement officials of Pavlovo City; call to account the infringers of law and human rights; take effective measures to eradicate the reasons and conditions which caused multiple violations of statutes and decrees committed by prosecution and law enforcement officials in Pavlovo; use all his power to effectively restore the violated procedural laws and constitutional rights of Dmitry Andronov and Igor Gorokhov.
You may remember that in January 2007 Marina G. Andronova applied to the NN Committee Against Torture asking for legal aid with the case of the unlawful use of physical force in respect of her minor son, Dmitry A. Andronov, by officers of the Pavlovo District Police Station (ROVD) and an investigator of the Pavlovo City Prosecutor’s Office. M. Andronova submitted that according to her son on 7 January 2007 the police officers and the investigator, accusing him of the rape, had exerted violence on him during detention and convoy to the prosecutor’s office. M. Andronova added that many witnesses could testify to the fact of the use of violence in respect of her son. Ms. Andronova submitted applications about the crime to the law enforcement agencies of Pavlovo. However, city prosecutor Lebedev, having made a short and superficial inquiry, made the illegitimate and ungrounded disposition to dismiss the matter on the ground of “unascertainment of facts” and hurried to inform mass media agencies about it.
Experts of the NN Committee Against Torture when conducting unofficial investigation into the matter discovered a number of procedural violations, made by the officials of law enforcement agencies which had conducted the inquiry into the crime committed in respect of D. Andronov and I. Gorokhov.
For example, in breach of the RF Criminal Procedure Code, in reply to her application to the Pavlovo ROVD in relation to the crime, they did not inform Maria Andronova about the disposition made within stipulated time.
Nor was the applicant informed about the transfer of the case to the Pavlovo City Prosecutor’s Office according to the investigative jurisdiction, what is undoubtedly a violation which spoke for improper fulfillment by the head of the Pavlovo ROVD of his obligations. And the disposition of Pavlovo City Prosecutor Lebedev to dismiss the matter complained of by M. Andronova was also, in breach of the law, never reported to her. Being exhausted from inaction of prosecution officials, she addressed to the Regional Prosecutor’s Office with a complaint against Pavlovo prosecution officials. The complaint was registered. However, in breach of criminal procedure laws Ms. Andronova has not yet been informed neither about a prolongation of the complaint’s examination nor about a decision, made as a result of the examination.
On 20 January 2007 the NN Committee Against Torture submitted an application to the Regional Prosecutor’s Office requesting to initiate an inquiry into the case of the unlawful use of physical force by law enforcement officers of Pavlovo City in respect of D. Andronov and I. Gorokhov. On 22 January 2007 we submitted the materials collected by our experts during the preliminary examination of Ms. Andronova’s application to the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Prosecutor’s Office. Prosecutor on duty Yu. N. Durygin received the materials consisting of 31 pages.
On 26 January 2007 chief of the supervisory department of regional prosecutor’s office V.V. Igoshin informed the NN Committee Against Torture that the application and the attached materials had been forwarded under supervision to the Pavlovo City Prosecutor’s Office for an inquiry, the results of which would be reported there from to the NN CAT.
However, in breach of the law, the Pavlovo City Prosecutor’s Office has not yet notified the Committee of the decision made. Furthermore, when making the disposition in respect of the alleged crime the Prosecutor of Pavlovo City should have given his assessment of the materials attached by the Committee to the application. Without the assessment and examination of the available materials the prosecutor by definition could not have made a reasoned and substantiated decision.
All this makes a poor characterization of the Pavlovo Prosecutor’s Office. Negligent attitude to the law, which the prosecution officials demonstrate, ought to be penalized. That is why human rights defenders require prosecutor Maksimenko to inquire into the matter and give appropriate assessment of the actions of his subordinates.