3 June 2015 will become a memorable date in the history of the Moscow branch of the Committee Against Torture. For the first time we have managed to get the Tverskoy Court of Moscow declare illegal the inaction of the investigative department for Tverskoy District which ignores citizens’ complaints against torture and battery conducted by the police officers, and to succeed in defending this court decision on appeal. 

(Photo: IZVESTIYA/Dmitry Kiselev)

The Moscow branch of the Committee Against Torture has two cases in progress which are within the investigative jurisdiction of Tverskoy Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of RF. It is the case of the battery of entertainment officer Anna Prokofyeva and the case of failure to render the appropriate medical assistance thus incurring damage to health of actor Andrey Shatsky.  

Reaction to the submitted applications in relation to these two cases was absolutely identical. The officers of this Investigative Department refused to examine the crime reports and forward them to those police officers who actually are accused of authority abuse by the applicants. All this happens despite the fact that we point the investigators’ attention to direct evidence that we were able to collect on our own in the process of public enquiry and have available and ready to share. 

Tverskoy Investigative Department ignores even the Procesutor’s Office which demanded to rectify breaches and examine the crime report as mandated by the law.

Having exhausted all possible methods to influence the situation we applied to the Tverskoy District Court which on 6 May 2015 supported us in our struggle with the sabotage of the RF Investigative Committee investigators. On 3 June this decision was upheld by the Court of Appeal.

Lawyer of the Committee Against Torture Georgiy Palchikov comments on the situation: «We are going to use this court decision as a tool to change the situation in Moscow and the Moscow region and make the Investigative Committee officers start working on crime reports related to police torture, in accordance with the laws of the Russian Federation».