Resident of Vannovskoye settlement of the Tbilisi District of the Krasnodar Territory Denis Nekipelov applied to the Committee Against Torture. He told human rights defenders that on 3 June 2021 the police officers planted marijuana on him, and then beat him up.
According to the applicant, the officers with the Drug trafficking department of the Ministry of the Interior for the Krasnodar Territory and criminal investigative officers of the District Department of the Interior for the Tbilisi District came to his home with a search in the framework of the criminal case on sales of superpotent substances in Armavir. During the search, the police officers checked two rooms three times using dogs, but found nothing. After that, the dog specialist took the dogs away and left to talk to other officers. After that, one of the police officers started to convulsively go from one room to another, and then for the fourth time suggested to search the rooms without dogs, Nekipelov recalls.
— Having entered in the room, the officer immediately came to the place where they planted a parcel, it was lying in a conspicuous place, precisely where the dogs were walking around and sniffing, the parcel was thoroughly and properly packed, — Denis said.
After the search, Nekipelov and his partner submitted an application to the Investigative Committee and the Prosecutor’s Office, claiming that the substances were planted on them. The investigators performed a check, but in the end they issued four dismissals of claims to open a criminal case. It is not known whether the case based on the fact of finding marijuana is opened or not.
According to Nekipelov, subsequently he was beaten up by the police officers. On that night, 27 August, he was standing near his home with his partner and a friend. Road Patrol Service passed them by, turned around and stopped near the company. Two men in uniform went out of it. One of them pushed Nekipelov in the chest, saying, “Are you out of your f…ng mind?” According to the police officers, the reason for that was that Denis was running after their car, shouting swear words. Nekipelov’s partner brought him inside the house.
Next morning, the same Road Patrol Service officers came to Nekipelov’s home together with an authorized operations officer for Tbilisi District. He took Denis to the police department. There, a police officer named Aleksey hit Nekipelov’s face with the heel of his hand. Then, according to Denis, he was handcuffed and pushed on the floor and the police officers started to hit and kick him in the area of the kidneys, body and head.
Then, a protocol was drawn up on Denis with regard to failure to carry out an order of police officers (part 1 of Article 19.3 of the Administrative Offences Code of the Russian Federation), and the next two days he spent at the department. On 30 August, the Tbilisi District Court sentenced Nekipelov to 15 days of administrative arrest.
On the day of apprehension, Nekipelov passed a medical examination which registered hematomas on his shoulders and bruises on his leg. When Denis was under arrest in the detention facility, ambulance was called three times for him. An attempt was made to take him to hospital, but he refused to be hospitalized, since he feared that his time under arrest would be prolonged. A surgeon at hospital registered him with a contusion of the rib cage, and medics of the ambulance diagnosed him with vegetative-vascular dystonia, sympathicoadrenal crisis, cephalalgia and closed craniocerebral injury.
The hospital staff reported the traces of battery to the Department of the Interior for the Tbilisi District. Nine days later this application was sent to the Kropotkinsky Interdistrict Investigative Department.
Apart from that, on 30 August, the mother of Denis applied to the Krasnodar Investigative Committee with a complaint about illegal actions of the police officers, applying of force and failure to provide medical assistance. On the same day, Nekipelov’s partner submitted an application on using force against Denis to the Prosecutor’s Office of the Tbilisi District.
The investigator who was in charge of the check, did not assign a medical forensic check and did not request Nekipelov’s medical documentation. In addition, he issued a dismissal of a claim to open a criminal case three times. Now the check is resumed and another investigator is in charge of it.
On 7 October, investigator of the Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee for the Krasnodar Territory initiated a criminal case against Nelipelov on applying violence against a police officer (part 1 of Article 318 of the Criminal Code). On 25 January 2022, the Tbilisi District Court declared Denis to be guilty of hitting a police officer in the face and sentenced him to a year of corrective labour. Nekipelov appealed against the verdict.
Since the police officer did not have any visible injuries, the Committee Against Torture ordered an expert examination which established violations in the work of the medical forensic expert, who confirmed a contusion of the face. At the same time, the expert failed to establish Nekipelov’s bodily injuries, despite having failed to examine him or study the medical documentation.