On 25 December 2012 Nizhny Novgorod Office of the INGO «Committee Against Torture» received  an application from parents of two teenagers who had allegedly been ill-treated in the Bogorodsk city Police Department.
(From a TV report: Nikita and Artem)

According to the parents, on the night of 20 to 21 December their sons Nikita and Artem were in a taxi on their way home. Suddenly the car was stopped by police officers who dragged the minors out of it, and took them to the Borogodsk Department of the Interior. The boys found themselves at the police department at about 1 am, there they spent the whole night. Meanwhile, nobody bothered to inform parents about the detention. One can imagine the way they felt being unaware of their under age children whereabouts.

In the morning one of the boys’ acquaintances called his father to tell him that his son was kept under detention in the police department. Having arrived there soon enough, the parents at once noticed a fresh abrasion behind their son’s ear, but the teen wouldn’t answer his parents to their questions concerning the injury. He seemed afraid of the police officers there. At that moment the situation didn’t arouse suspicion, for parents wanted theirs son home back as soon as possible.

In the evening Nikita felt too bad. He could not leave bed unaided. Parents called the ambulance. While waiting for the doctors to come they took off the son’s clothes to examine him, and were shocked with what they saw. The teenager had numerous bruises and abrasions along his ribs and on the back. It took Nikita considerable courage to tell parents what had happened to him in the police department. According to him, officers from the department were torturing him for several hours: had him standing in the cold winter street in underwear only, dragged him to the lavatory trying to push his head into a toilet bowl, were beating him till he lost his consciousness several times. As the boy states, there were five police officers executing the torture. The policemen wanted him and his friend to confess to assault and robbery of an internet-cafe. Being unable to endure the ill-treatment any longer, particularly after the officers took the boys’ trousers off threatening them with sexual abuse, friends were forced to yield. In the end they wrote and signed everything the police officers wanted. Now the teenagers are receiving medical treatment.

Following relevant applications by the minors’ parents, lawyers of the Committee Against Torture have started a public investigation into their allegations. Today human rights defenders went for information to the city where the incident happened.