The Nizhny Novgorod Court estimated the sufferings of a victim who was hit several times by a police officer in a service vehicle in the presence of a peace justice at 30 thousand rubles. In 2015, this police officer was sentenced to three years of conditional term. The lawyers with the Committee Against Torture, representing the interests of the victim, will be appealing against the court ruling in the part of the amount of the awarded compensation.
On 2 March 2015, Aleksey Gor’kov from Arzamas of the Nizhny Novgorod region applied to the Committee Against Torture for legal assistance. He told human rights defenders that on 3 March 2014 he was beaten up by the police officers in their service vehicle.
According to Aleksey, on that day he lit a cigarette at a bus station, and a woman standing nearby made a remark about that, however, she did not limit herself to that but came up to him and knocked the cigarette out of his mouth. Some thrashing started, following which the woman called for the police. The arrived police officers apprehended Andrey, put him in a service vehicle and took him to the police department. On the way, one of the police officers hit the apprehended several times at his face, legs and groin. Later on, he explained his actions by the intention to calm Gor’kov down, since the latter, sitting at the back seat, was actively moving and touching the driver’s seat with his feet, which impeded the driving process.
Later on, it turned out that the woman whom Gor’kov had a conflict with at the bus station, was the peace justice. A criminal case against Aleksey was initiated under part 2 of Article 119, paragraph “b”, part 2, Article 112 of the Criminal Code of the RF – the law-enforcement officers deemed that his actions amounted to threat of life and to an attack against the person with regard to their service duties. Gor’kov was taken to the Pre-Trial Detention Facility for six months, and then – for three months of house arrest (later on, the criminal case against him was dismissed due to amnesty).
Investigation based on Gor’kov’s application about violence applied to him by a police officer was conducted by the Arzamas Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of the RF for the Nizhny Novgorod region. On 9 February 2015, a criminal case was initiated with regard to senior police officer with the Interdistrict Department of Extra-Departmental Guards for Arzamas Konstantin Mizanov under paragraph “a”, part 3, Article 286 of the Criminal Code of the RF (“abuse of office using violence”).
The criminal case was caused by the video record from the police vehicle dashboard camera: it features the police officer beating up the apprehended person. It is seen on the video that Konstantin Mizanov, while staying in the service vehicle, made one blow with a palm of the right hand on the right side of Gor’kov’s face (who was handcuffed and did not render any resistance) and one blow with a fist at the inner part of the right leg thigh in the groin area”.
On 24 September 2015, judge of the Arzamas City Court of the Nizhny Novgorod region Svetlana Vorobyova declared Konstantin Mizanov guilty of having committed the incriminated crime and sentenced him to three years’ conditional term. The court hearing was conducted as per special procedure, the defendant fully acknowledged his guilt.
In June 2020, lawyers with the Committee Against Torture applied to the Nizhny Novgorod District Court with a lawsuit demanding to collect three hundred thousand rubles from the Ministry of the Interior of Russia as a compensation for moral damage inflicted to the victim by the crime of the ex-police officer.
Today, judge of the Nizhny Novgorod District Court Mikhail Antonov partially satisfied the claims under this lawsuit, having evaluated the victim’s sufferings at thirty thousand rubles.
“We shall definitely appeal against this court ruling in the part of the amount of the awarded compensation”, – lawyer with the Committee Against Torture Sergey Shounin, representing the interests of Aleksey Gor’kov, comments.