Judges of the Nizhegorodsky District Court Mariya Koteyeva and Larisa Abramova dismissed a lawsuit of a married couple who required a compensation for moral damage, inflicted to them by inefficient work of the investigators. As we have previously reported, in 2014 Dmitry Kamzolov and Lyubov Abramova applied to the Investigative Committee, complaining that in the police officers brutally beat them up in their own apartment. Up till now the criminal case has not been opened, and the investigators issued six refusals to initiate criminal proceedings.
(Photo: Lyubov Abramova, Dmitry Kamzolov)
As we have previously reported, in February 2014 the Nizhny Novgorod Office of the Interregional NGO «Committee Against Torture» received an application from Mr Dmitry Kamzolov and his partner Ms Lyubov Abramova. According to them, on 10 February, in their own flat, they were severely beaten by private security guards.
According to Lyubov Abramova, before the attack she had had a conflict with a woman who had parked her car on the lawn so that people could hardly walk by. The women had a fight, and Lyubov’s partner Dmitry Kamzolov stopped it. Then the driver threatened the couple with some problems, saying that her husband was a cop.
Lyubov and Dmitry state that at about 8 pm someone rang at their door. Lyubov opened it, and two police officers entered their flat. They neither introduced themselves nor explained the reason for the visit. They started shouting «where is your man?!» Dmitry heard the noise and as well appeared before the door. Mr Kamzolov remembers an immediate blow in the face, so he had no time to say or understand anything, nor could he resist their actions. Then the policemen were beating them with hands and rubber truncheons, and handcuffed them in the end. «They explained nothing», says Ms Abramova, «they were beating us silently, with smiles on their faces». After that Dmitry was brought to Police Department № 8. The same day he was examined by a doctor in a local trauma center, who observed numerous bruises and abrasions. Ms Lyubov Abramova was as well examined and obtained a medical report.
In November 2016 after human rights defenders applied to head of the Investigative Committee of Russia Aleksandr Bastrykin, the materials of the check based on Mr Kamzolov and Mrs Abramova’s complaint were transferred from the district department to the department for major cases investigation of the Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Nizhny Novgorod region. The superiors of the Sormovsky Investigative Department were also brought to responsibility: head Andrey Kablov received a severe reprimand, his deputy Mariya Chuvstvina – an admonition.
Totally during the pre-investigative check the investigators passed seven refusals to initiate criminal proceedings, six of them were declared illegal. The last refusal was issued by the investigator of the first department for major crimes investigation of the investigative department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Nizhny Novgorod region Aleksey Shoshin. Mr Shoshin concluded that the police officers were acting in strict accordance with the law and did not exceed their official powers.
During the issuing the refusal to initiate criminal proceedings investigator Shoshin ignored the instructions which he received from his superiors. For example, the investigator did not establish or question all the witnesses of the incident, did not perform the appropriate visual inspection of the scene of the incident, did not conduct a situational judicial examination, which would allow confirming or disproving the applicants’ theory on their bodily injuries.
Now human rights defenders are appealing against this refusal in court.
Lawyers with the Committee Against Torture also applied to court on behalf of Dmitry Kamzolov and Lyubov Abramova with lawsuits against the regional Investigative Department, requesting a compensation for moral damage, inflicted by the investigators’ violating their rights.
“In order to justify our stance we pointed at six rulings of the investigators, which were declared illegal and were quashed, as well as informed that the superior of the Sormovsky District and his deputy were brought to responsibility for red tape, – lawyer with the Committee Against Torture Sergey Shounin, representing the interests of the married couple, commented. – We also provided the conclusion of a medical psychologist, in which it is pointed out that Dmitry and Lyubov lived through the acute stress related to years-long inefficient work of the investigators regarding their complaint”.
However, on 26 September of this year judge of the Nizhegorodsky District Court Mariya Koteyeva dismissed these demands on Dmitry Kamzolov’s lawsuit, and on 13 November the similar ruling was passed concerning the lawsuit of Lyubov Abramova by judge Larisa Abramova.
“For the past two months it has been the third case in our practice when the judges from Nizhny Novgorod dismiss claims of compensation for moral damage to people who suffered from the investigator’s red tape. Such practice raises concerns and is extremely destructive, – Sergey Shounin thinks. – Such rulings of the court deprive the victims from even partial compensation for violation of their rights, they don’t contribute to fighting the red tape of the Investigative Committee officers. We shall definitely appeal against these rulings in the appellate court”.