The Interregional Committee against Torture tries to bring an Orenburg regional Prosecutor’s office worker to responsibility. For forgery. In 2007 there was already an incident when a Prosecutor’s office staff having a previous conviction was dismissed upon the Committee’s complaint.

    The Committee against Torture received an application from Mr. Dvoychenkov. The public investigation conducted by the Committee staff showed that investigator Renat Umetbayev from the Promyshlenniy district Prosecutor’s office (Orenburg) had carried out a check into allegations of police abuse under Mr. Dvoychenkov’s application in 2007-2008. Having studies the materials of the check, the Committee staff found “Mr. Dvoychenkov’s statement” composed by Umetbayev holding that Dvoychenkov had no claims to the police. Further investigation revealed that Mr. Dvoychenkov was not aware of the paper and, moreover, investigator Umetbayev had never interrogated our applicant. Where does this police-friendly paper stating lack of claims come from?

   Investigator Umetbayev explained that, as far as he remembered, he had once questioned Dvoychenkov. And later he prepared a copy of the statement obtained earlier. However, it is still not clear where the original copy of the statement is and how Dvoychenkov’s signature could appear on the second paper. According to Umetbayev, he prepared the statement and left it on his desk, later it disappeared and he does not know how it appeared in the materials of the check. The signature in the statement was analyzed by graphology experts who concluded that it did not correspond to Dvoychenkov’s handwriting and was most likely drawn by Umetbayev himself. The Criminal Code qualifies such actions as forgery by an official and presupposes criminal responsibility for intentional entry of misleading information into official documents. The official in charge can be sentenced to two years of imprisonment.

    The Investigation Department of the Investigation Committee under the RF Prosecutor’s Office for Orenburg region has conducted a check into allegations of forgery which has not detected corpus delicti in the investigator’s actions, criminal proceedings are not initiated. Perhaps, the reason for this is that at present Renat Kamilyevich Umetbayev continues serving “to the state’s benefit” in the capacity of deputy prosecutor of the Sol-Iletskiy district of Orenburg region, and his father, Kamil Akhkamilyevich Umetbayev is the prosecutor of the Akbulakskiy district of Orenburg region. It is highly probable that two such high-standing officials can influence the “impartiality and independence” of the investigator from the ID. The Committee against Torture will file a motion demanding that a check of this incident should be conducted by law enforcement bodies of some other Russian region.