Yesterday at the Yoshkar-Ola City Court of the Republic of Mariy El human rights defenders complaint, submitted in the interests of Vusar Askerov against the Investigative Committee’s refusal to initiate criminal proceedings based on his report of the battery by a police officer, was examined. In the course of the court hearing Deputy Head of the Investigative Department for Yoshkar-Ola Aleksey Abramov pointed out that the refusal in question had been quashed a day before, which means that there was no subject of the appeal any longer. As lawyer of the Committee for Prevention of Torture Danil Chendemerov points out, it’s the second time that this situation turns up in this case, that is why he intends to insist on bringing the executives of this Investigative Department to disciplinary action.
(Vusal Askerov)
The story goes like this. Vusal Askerov from Yoshkar-Ola applied to the Committee for Prevention of Torture for legal assistance.
As Vusal told the human rights defenders, on the night from 19 to 20 February he dropped in a cafe-grill bar with some friends of his to buy cigarettes. However, this routine action ended up in a conflict. «When we entered the shop a cashier refused to serve us without explaining the reasons. After several attempts to attract her attention I broke a glass fish from the shop-window», – Vusal described the incident.
After that, according to Askerov, the shop assistant called for private enterprise security officers who came to scene of event and told the group of young men to wait till the police arrive.
«When the police officers arrived and entered the shop they immediately started to behave very rudely, none of them introduced themselves or showed their police IDs. One of the officers came up to me and asked: «Is it you who is the most arrogant here?», after that he pulled my arm behind my back and brought me out from the shop», – Askerov describes what was going on. Then, according to Vusal, the police officer brought him out in the street, faceplanted and handcuffed him, after that kicked him in the face so violently that Vusal lost consciousness for some time.
On the same day, 20 February, Vusal submitted a crime report to the investigative department for Yoshkar-Ola city of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Republic of Mary El, as well as to the human rights defenders of the Committee for Prevention of Torture for legal assistance.
The check based on his crime report has been going on for five months now. Two illegal refusals to initiate criminal proceedings were issued, which were subsequently quashed by Deputy Head of the Investigative Department for Yoshkar-Ola Aleksey Abramov only after the human rights defenders appeal against them in court. Both times it happened the day before the judicial examination of the complaint against the corresponding refusal to initiate criminal proceedings. At the same time the refusal was quashed after almost a month after its issuing, although it is the responsibility of the head of the investigative body to perform thorough examination of the materials of the check immediately after issuing the ruling and timely quash illegal rulings, as it is provided in the departmental regulations.
«In the nearest future we shall submit a number of complaints against the actions of the investigator and the Deputy Head of this Investigative Department. Such attitude to one’s office duties is simply not acceptable, that is why we shall insist on their bringing to disciplinary action, – lawyer of the Committee for Prevention of Torture Danil Chendemerov, representing the interests of Vusal Askerov, comments. – We shall also continue to provide legal assistance to our applicant at the stage of the pre-investigative check, and if in future the illegal refusals to initiate criminal proceedings are quashed in the same way, we shall ask the court to pass an intermediate order addressed to head of the Investigative Department Aleksey Abramov with regards to his failure to perform his office duties».