Lawyers with the Committee Against Torture have applied today to Chairman of the Investigative Committee of Russia Aleksandr Bastrykin asking to conduct an agency check and bring Acting Head of the Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of Russia for the Kabardino-Balkar Republic Alim Babayev to disciplinary action. According to human rights defenders, Babayev’s approach to work indulges the current practice of poor quality of his subordinates’ work.

In the submitted application, human rights defenders refer to the current system-based problem in the regional department. Alim Babayev repeatedly refused to conduct agency checks with regard to his subordinates and to bring them to disciplinary action in situations when established cases of legislative violations committed by them are present.

“In December 2018, the Nalchik court declared the refusal of the Nalchik investigator to provide us with a witness interrogation protocol to be illegal, but Mr Babayev refused to bring to responsibility either the investigator himself or the head of the department, – lawyer with the Committee Against Torture Magomed Alamov points out. – In addition, Babayev did not bring to responsibility another investigator of the same department who issued illegal refusal to initiate criminal proceedings. Later on, we complained about the head of the investigative department who did not provide appropriate procedural monitoring and does not quash ungrounded refusals to initiate criminal proceedings. The result was the same. Each time Mr Babayev considers there are no grounds for an agency check and puts one and the same wording in the answer: “unacceptability of such violations is strictly pointed out”.

Failure to comply with these requirements himself became one of the vivid examples of Alim Babayev’s attitude to the necessity to comply with the requirements set by the legislation. In the end of April of this year, the Nalchik City Court acknowledged that Babayev violated the time limit for examination of a complaint against the refusal to initiate criminal proceedings.

“In violation of the requirements of part 1 of Article 124 of the Criminal Procedural Code of the Russian Federation, Acting Head of the Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Kabardino-Balkar Republic, examined the complaint of applicant M.S.Alamov, submitted in accordance with Article 124 of the Criminal Procedural Code of the Russian Federation, only a month later, which is a harsh violation of the criminal proceedings participant’s rights… Inaction of the Acting Head of the Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Kabardino-Balkar Republic is illegal and violates the criminal and procedural legislation of the Russian Federation”, – the ruling says.

“It is obvious that reluctance of the Nalchik investigators to comply with the requirements stipulated by the law, has a very negative impact on the investigative body’s performance. It is also evident that the situation cannot be improved by “strict instructions”, and that a more complex and system-based approach is required. But, unfortunately, we do not see that Alim Babayev intends to bring order to the investigative work in Kabardino-Balkariya. That is why we insist that the superiors of the central office of the Investigative Committee evaluate Babayev’s capacity to cope with his duties”, – Alamov explained.