Photo: Ramazan Suleymanov and Yusoup Magomedov

Yesterday, on 26 January 2021, in Khasavyurt, examination of the criminal case with regard to two former police officers started. They are accused of forcing a local citizen to confess of raping an underage neighbor girl. During the court hearing the procedure of the judicial investigation was defined and victim Musa Aliyev was interrogated.

As we have previously reported, resident of Mutsalaul settlement of the Republic of Dagestan Musa Aliyev applied to the Committee Against Torture for legal assistance on 25 October 2019. He told human rights defenders that on 6 September 2019 the police officers took him to the building of the Department of the Interior for the Khasavyurt District allegedly for providing witness testimony regarding the murder committed a few months ago in the neighboring village. Aliyev recalls that he was brought in the office on the second floor and two police officers started to beat him up there: Deputy Head of Criminal Investigations of the Department of the Interior of Russia for the Khasavyurt District Ramazan Suleymanov and Criminal Investigations officer Yosoup Magomedov.

According to Aliyev, these police officers hit his feet, back and face, as well as put him in the “stretching” position and made him stand in this position for over an hour in order to obtain confession of the neighbor girl rape.

Aliyev refused to provide false evidence against himself, and in the evening of the same day he was released without drawing up any procedural documents and registration in the log. Musa applied to the Khasavyurt City Hospital for medical assistance. Later on, the expert diagnosed Aliyev with a brain concussion and a contusion of the soft tissues of the frontoparietal area which amounted to mild health damage and were inflicted by an impact of a solid blunt object.

On 10 October 2019, based on Musa Aliyev’s application to the medical institution, the Khasavyurt Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of the RF for the Republic of Dagestan a criminal case was opened under part 3 of Article 286 of the Criminal Code of Russia (“abuse of office using violence”) against police officers Suleymanov and Magomedov, and Aliyev was declared a victim.

On 27 July 2020, Deputy Prosecutor of the Republic of Dagestan affirmed the indictment with regard to police officers Suleymanov and Magomedov. The criminal case was submitted to court for examination on its merits.

On 17 September 2020, during the court hearing, one of the convicts’ lawyers, Ruslan Umayev, submitted a motion requesting to remove the judge, referring to the fact that judge Akif Gadjiyev previously had held a post in the Prosecutor’s Office of the Khasavyurt District of the Republic of Dagestan dealing with supervision of internal affairs bodies supervision. According to the lawyer, the judge was contacting with the defendants for many years both professionally and privately. Having referred to the fact that such close acquaintance of the judge with the defendants may impair the objectivity of the judicial examination the lawyer submitted a motion requesting to remove judge Gadjiyev. The motion was also supported by the Prosecutor and the victim party.

Judge Gadjiyev satisfied the motion, issued a ruling on recusal and the case was transferred to judge of the Khasavyurt City Court Arslan Satayev.

Yesterday, the first court hearing on this criminal case took place, during which the procedure of the judicial investigation was determined. After the the indictment of former police officers Ramazan Suleymanov and Yusoup Magomedov was announced by the State Prosecutor, the court questioned victim Musa Aliyev.

“At last, the court started to examine this criminal case, – Acting Head of the North Caucasus branch of the Committee Against Torture Magomed Alamov comments. – Throughout the court hearing which lasted for over one and a half hours, the interrogation of the victim lasted. Due to the fact that the defendants’ lawyers had a lot of questions, Aliyev’s questioning was not finished yesterday and the court adjourned the hearing till 28 January”.