The investigators resumed the check based on the application submitted by a resident of Orenburg who was beaten up by the Road Patrol Service – it is the 23-th check

News

05 May 2022

For the 23-th time, the Investigative Committee of Orenburg resumed the check based on the application submitted by local citizen Vladimir Arkhipov, who was beaten up by the Road Patrol police officers in 2011. This happed after the lawyers with the Committee Against Torture submitted an am application to the Prosecutor’s Office complaining of another dismissal of a claim to open a criminal case.

According to Arkhipov, the Road Patrol officers stopped his car and Arkhipov was subjected to the breath alcohol test without being shown the results. The young man proposed that he should undergo medical exanimation himself, and verbal row started, after which one of the officers hit Vladimir in the temple with his fist. When the guy was let out of the police car, he got into his own car and shut the doors, for fear of the continuation of the battery.  

One of the officers opened the trunk door of the Arkhipov’s car, crushed the rear seats, got inside the car and started choking Vladimir. While Arkhipov was trying to free himself, another policeman opened the door and started applying an electric shocker to him. At the same time, other traffic policemen were hitting him in the head and trunk. The last blow which made Vladimir faint was in the nose.

When Vladimir came to himself all his clothes were smeared with blood which was running from his nose. The police were standing nearby. Vladimir asked them to call an ambulance because he suffered from incoagulability and could die of blood loss. The police officers threw him a cell phone. Vladimir called an ambulance which immediately took him to hospital where he spent 10 days.

The victim was examined by a forensic-medical bureau and was registered with abrasions and hematomas, a brain concussion, contusions of head and face soft tissues, as well as burns and traces of electrocution on the body.

Arkhipov handed over the medical report to the investigative authorities. Despite the evidence, no criminal case against the police officers was initiated. The investigators over and over again passed illegal rulings refusing to initiate criminal proceedings – in total, there were 22 of them. In addition, human rights defenders learned that the investigators lost Arkhipov’s clinical record, which was crucial for conducting expert medical examination in order to establish the degree of damage inflicted to Vladimir.  

Since the investigative authorities failed to perform effective investigation, in 2013 lawyers with the Committee Against Torture submitted a complaint on his behalf to the European Court of Human Rights. In 2018, the complaint was communicated. In the same year, the Court of Orenburg collected 10 000 rubles of compensation from the Investigative Committee for the 7-years’ long red tape in the Arkhipov’s case.

The period of limitations for bringing to responsibility the police officers expired last year, that is why they no longer can be punished by the court. However, the lawyers with the Committee intend to continue insisting on opening the criminal case.

The chances of opening a criminal case is slim, because the period of limitations for bringing the culprits to responsibility have already expired. Most likely, the conducted check will again end with dismissal of a claim to open a criminal case. The law provides for several grounds for such dismissal, but in this case the only legal ground is expiry of the period of limitation for bringing the culprits to responsibility. On the other hand, as a rule, investigative authorities, avoids dismissals on this ground, since it reveals unpleasant reality — for 10 years the investigative authorities failed to take a legal and justified decision.   

Подтвердите, что вам есть 18 лет