The Interregional Committee against Torture concluded the check and started a public investigation under the application of Marina and Mikhail Veselovskiy claiming that they had been subject to an unprovoked attack of traffic police and patrol and inspection service staff.

According to the applicants, on 1 July their car was stopped by a police officer at the Rubezh check-point near Zavolzhye. The officer did not see it right to introduce himself and produce his id, however he demanded that the Veselovskiys should produce their documents to fill in the protocol. Mr. Veselovskiy refused to hand in the documents and asked the officer to summon someone from the Zavolzhye traffic police administration.

After that the Veselovskiys’ car was kept at the traffic police check-point for an hour and a half.

Mikhail’s spouse, Marina Veselovskiy tried to go to the WC and got out of the car, she stepped some 100 meters away from the policemen when, according to her, two officers  came down on her, handcuffed her and literally threw her into a police car and took back to Rubezh. Ms. Veselovskiy felt unwell but the police rejected her request to call an ambulance.

The couple claims that they were released only after the operational-investigation group came there, but no one apologized to them for the offensive treatment and violence. However, the operational-investigation group called in an ambulance for Ms. Marina Veselovskiy. The doctors diagnosed a series of shoulder injuries and bruises. In the context of the investigation performed by the Committee against Torture, Marina Veselovskiy will be subject to further medical examinations.   

It should be mentioned that there is still no administrative offense protocol in respect of the Veselovskiys, although that was the pretext to stop the car. There are no decisions under the administrative case either.

In the nearest future lawyers of the Committee against Torture are going to substantiate the facts of the case and determine the degree and character of Marina Veselovskiy’s rights and legal interests violation by the police.

It is worth saying that this is not the first time the traffic police in Nizhny Novgorod region, to put it mildly, behave inadequately.