Photo: Sergey Lyapin after meeting with the police.

   The Committee against Torture got to know that investigator Artem Ovsyannikov from the Dzerzhinsk Investigation Department under the Investigation Committee again refused to start criminal proceedings basing on the fact that Mr. Sergey Lyapin from the Avtozavodskiy district of Nizhny Novgorod had been tortured with electricity.

You may remember that lawyers of the Committee against torture representing the victim have already appealed against the Dzerzhinsk city court decision dated 8 august by which the court justified tortures with electricity used against Sergey in order to obtain a confession from him in course of a criminal investigation.

On 3 September 2008, prior to the Judicial Division’s decision, deputy head of the Dzerzhinsk Interdistrict Investigation Department of the Investigation Committee under the RF Prosecutor’s Office Sergey Kokin cancelled the refusal and submitted the case file for an additional check. His decision was motivated by a lack of comprehensive check.

Upon the results of the additional check the investigation issued another refusal to start a criminal case. Lawyers of the Committee against Torture think this additional check to be incomplete as well.  The only additional activity within this check was asking some expert’s opinion.

The Committee against Torture will appeal against the unmotivated and unlawful decision not to start criminal proceedings based on the results of such check.  

You may remember that Mr. Sergey Lyapin accuses police officers from the Volodarskiy police station of torturing and battering him in order to “beat” a confession to a crime out of him.

It should be mentioned that the medical examination results prove that Mr. Lyapin’s injuries could result from electricity.