The Nizhny Novgorod office of the Interregional Сommittee against Torture has started an investigation under the application of a pensioner from Kstovo claiming police abuse.

   Pavel Sedov from Kstovo has applied to the Committee against Torture for help claiming that he was beaten up and ill-treated in the Kstovo Directorate of the Interior on 18 October 2009. The man has reported that on that day he was taken to the police station where he was battered, chocked with a gas mask and had a stick tucked into his anus. According to Mr. Sedov, this way the police tried to make him confess that he had killed a man he knew. Right after he was released, Mr. Sedov went to hospital and was administered in-patient treatment. It should be mentioned that according to Mr. Sedov, the officers who tortured him later demanded that he should right a notice stating that he had no claims against the police. Being scared for his life, Pavel wrote that notice saying that he had got injured by falling from the stairs. Further Mr. Sedov reported about the crime to the Prosecutor’s Office with the help of the Committee lawyers. In his application he described the real events. There was a check conducted under his application, but the investigator refused to open criminal proceedings saying that Mr. Sedov had told different things to him and to the police. In the investigator’s opinion, this is an absolutely irremovable contradiction that is to be interpreted in favour of the police.  Mr. Sedov is now to undergo another examination which should reveal whether he could get those injuries through falling. Depending on the results, the refusal to open criminal proceedings can be appealed against.

   Specialists of the Committee against Torture intend to make the authorities conduct an effective investigation under Mr. Sedov’s application.