НАСТОЯЩИЙ МАТЕРИАЛ (ИНФОРМАЦИЯ) ПРОИЗВЕДЕН, РАСПРОСТРАНЕН И (ИЛИ) НАПРАВЛЕН ИНОСТРАННЫМ АГЕНТОМ «КОМАНДА ПРОТИВ ПЫТОК» ЛИБО КАСАЕТСЯ ДЕЯТЕЛЬНОСТИ ИНОСТРАННОГО АГЕНТА «КОМАНДА ПРОТИВ ПЫТОК» | 18+
Shepherd from Vyazovoye settlement of the Tashlinskoye District Aleksandr Kulishov applied to the Orenburg branch of the Crew Against Torture, having told human rights defenders that in the course of the conversation a police officer hit his head with a heavy stick. At the hospital the man was diagnosed with a brain concussion.
23-year old Kulishov worked as a hired workforce for a farmer in the Pervomayskiy District. He got hired in May, and sometime later the farmer’s four sheep disappeared. The employer suggested that Kulishov either worked out to compensate their price or paid. Since Kulishov did not have this amount of money, he agreed to work out, having signed a written undertaking. Later on Aleksandr had another conflict with the farmer due to disappearance of some horses. According to the applicant, the farmer hit him, however, the animals were found later on.
After this case Kulishov decided to go home to Vyazovoye settlement. That’s where the head of village and two police officers came four days later. They told Kulishov that the farmer submitted a crime report about him and requested that he went with them. At first, they performed a questioning in the local club and then went to the Pervomayskiy police department. There were five people in the office, as Aleksandr recalls. He sat on a chair and said that he went away from the farmer because the latter was beating him up, insulted him and took his passport away. In addition, he denied his guilt of the sheep theft and wanted to submit a crime report on his employer, himself. According to Kulishov, the police officers refused to register his crime report in which he mentioned the battery and the passport seizure. Instead, they started to tell that Aleksandr stole the sheep together with a friend of his, who was allegedly being taken to the police department. Then, according to Kulishov, one of the police officers started to threaten him:
«He was aiming a blow at me, kept telling me I would be framed as a murderer. I continued to insist I was not taking the sheep. After that he took a thick black folder and smashed my head with it in the temple area. Other officers were sitting and did not attempt to calm him down. Then he pinched my nose and hit me in the chest».
According to Kulishov, he incriminated himself and confessed of sheep theft for fear of torture. The same police officers who were present during the battery, drove Aleksandr to a neighboring village. He reached his home late at night by hitchhiking. All night he had a headache, and a day later he managed to apply to hospital. There he was given an appointment card to head shot and later on he was hospitalized with a brain concussion.
Comment of the CAT lawyer
«Unfortunately, there exists practice when the law-enforcement officers secure «necessary» confessions by force to make their job easier. At the present time, a public investigation is being carried out based on Aleksandr Kulishov’s statement, and the applicant’s version of events looks more than probable. A crime report has been submitted».