Head of the Department of the Criminal Investigations of the Chief Directorate of the Ministry of the Interior of Russia for the Nizhny Novgorod Dmitry Miryasov offered apologies to Aleksandr Novoselov who was taken to the forest and tortured by the police officers with the participation of businessman Oleg Sorokin in 2004.

As we have previously reported, on 12 April 2019, the panel of judges of the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Court upheld a judgement of conviction by the court of the first instance regarding two former police officers Evgeny Voronin and Roman Markeyev, as well as businessman Oleg Sorokin. The verdict came into legal force.

Evgeny Voronin is declared guilty of committing crimes under items “a, v, g” of Part 2 Article 126 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and items “a, b” of part 3 Article 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“arranging an abduction of a person by a group of persons by previous concert using violence damaging to health or threatening with such violence, applying weapons or objects used as weapons, as well as abuse of office with the use of violence or threatening with violence, using weapons or special equipment”). Voronin is sentenced to five and a half years of jail time with serving the sentence in the maximum security penal colony.

Roman Markeyev is declared guilty of committing crimes under items “a, v, g” of Part 2 Article 126 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and items “a, b” of part 3 Article 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“abduction of a person by a group of persons by previous concert using violence damaging to health or threatening with such violence, applying weapons or objects used as weapons, as well as abuse of office with the use of violence or threatening with violence, using weapons or special equipment”). Markeyev is sentenced to five years of jail time with serving the sentence in the maximum security penal colony.

Oleg Sorokin is declared guilty of committing crimes under items “a, v, g” of Part 2 Article 126, Part 5 Article 33, items “a, b” of Part 3 Article 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“abduction by a group of persons by previous concert using violence damaging to health or threatening with such violence, applying weapons or objects used as weapons, as well as aiding the abuse of office with the use of violence or threatening with violence, using weapons or special equipment”). Apart from that, Sorokin is declared guilty of the crime under Part 6 Article 290 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“acceptance of a bribe in especially big amount”). Sorokin is sentenced to ten years of jail time with serving the sentence in the maximum security penal colony and a fine of 468 800 000 rubles.

The court also passed a ruling to award Aleksandr Novoselov a compensation for moral damage inflicted by criminal actions of the convicts. Evgeniy Voronin is obliged to pay the victim a compensation in the amount of six hundred thousand rubles, Roman Markeyev – five hundred thousand rubles, Oleg Sorokin – one million rubles. I After the verdict entered into legal force, lawyers with the Committee Against Torture applied to the superiors of the regional Ministry of the Interior with a request to offer apologies to victim Aleksandr Novoselov in accordance with the law “On police”.

Head of the Department of Criminal Investigations of the Chief Directorate of the Ministry of Interior of Russia Dmitry Miryasov also offered his apologies.

“We also applied to court with a lawsuit against the regional Ministry of Interior on compensation of moral damage inflicted to Novoselov by the criminal actions of the former police officers”, – lawyer with the Committee Against Torture Sergey Shounin comments.