«Sorry, nothing personal, it’s just our job». A pensioner from the Krasnodar Territory told human rights defenders that the police officers were hanging him on a bar, beat him up with electrical shocker and forced to drink vodka 

News

29 September 2022

НАСТОЯЩИЙ МАТЕРИАЛ (ИНФОРМАЦИЯ) ПРОИЗВЕДЕН, РАСПРОСТРАНЕН И (ИЛИ) НАПРАВЛЕН ИНОСТРАННЫМ АГЕНТОМ «КОМАНДА ПРОТИВ ПЫТОК» ЛИБО КАСАЕТСЯ ДЕЯТЕЛЬНОСТИ ИНОСТРАННОГО АГЕНТА «КОМАНДА ПРОТИВ ПЫТОК» | 18+

59-year old resident of Novorozhdestvenskaya village Viktor Krasnoborod’ko applied to lawyers with the Crew Against Torture. He told human rights defenders that he was subjected to torture at the Tikhoretsk police department after his stepson was hospitalized with injuries. The man denied his involvement in the battery, however, having yielded to the police torture, signed full confession.    

On 28 August, after the night shift, security guard Victor Krasnorod’ko returned home after his 24-hours shift and found his stepson Andrey lying on a bed. According to Victor, his face was smashed and his face was covered with blood. The man immediately called for an ambulance, police officers and called his wife. The ambulance took Andrey to hospital, and Krasnoborod’ko and his family were asked to come to the Department of the Interior for the Tikhoretsky District to provide explanations. There were three police officers in the room, which, according to Victor, were talking to him in a gross manner and called him a bonehead. On that day, no physical force was applied to him, and he was released home.

On the next day, the man was asked to come to the police department again, where, according to Victor, once again he was asked about his involvement in the battery of his step son, as well as threatened and insulted. After the lawyer hired by the family, intervened, Krasnoborod’ko was released from the police department at one a.m. It is worth noting that all this time the step son was at hospital in a grave condition and the investigators did not have a chance to question him.  

On 5 September, the police officers once again called Victor to the department, and demanded that he confessed of the crime and threatened him. This time, he spent the night at the police department and was sleeping on a couch. In the morning of the next day he was released.   

On 19 September, police called again and asked to come allegedly for a short time to conduct an investigative experiment. However, at the police department, the same three police officers continued to ask questions.  According to Victor, at some point the police officer said: «Sorry, mate, it’s nothing personal, it’s our job». After these words, one of the police officers went out of the room and returned with a big red metal bar:  

«They forced me to take off my shoes, and made me sit on the floor. At first they covered each of my arms with paper and then applied a scotch tape on top.  After that they tied my both hands with scotch tape. They put my tied hands on my knees, so that the knees were between my hands. They put the bar under my knees and hung me on it. Then they started to apply electric shocker. I felt sick, and had a vision dimout. When I started to lose consciousness, they would bring me to my senses by slaps in the face».

According to Victor, the police officers once again demanded that he confessed of the battery of his stepson, however, the man refused to do it. After that, according to Victor, the police officers   brought some device, unknown to him, and started to torture him with electricity.   

«I was hung several times. As a result, the pain became so unbearable that I agreed to their demands. Then they took me off the bar and offered tea and snacks».  

Victor wrote a full confession, having indicated, as the police officers dictated him, that he inflicted injuries to his stepson during a household brawl. However, according to the applicant, it did not end his abuse. He managed to call his wife, but he was not released from the police department: the man spent the night on a bench inside the building. In the morning, a police officer came up to him, one of those who tortured him the day before, and offered Krasnoborod’ko some vodka. After that the police officers started to forcefully pour alcohol down his throat, due to that, as Victor recalls, he was choking. Finally, he agreed to drink on his own.   

Due to huge amount of alcohol, the man got drunk and in this condition he was taken to the neighboring settlement and dropped off. There he was immediately apprehended by the district police officer, who, according to Krasnoborod’ko, did not work there. Victor was taken for medical examination, and then straight to the court, which sentenced him to three days of administrative arrest.      

After he came out of the temporary detention facility, Victor applied to the Tikhoretsk District Hospital and the Bureau of the Medical Forensic Examination in Krasnodar, where he was diagnosed with the meniscal tear, extravasations, contusions and bruises. The check of the fact of violence applied against Krasnoborod’ko is performed by the same district police officer who apprehended him in the state of alcoholic intoxication.  

Victor told the CAT lawyers that his health sharply deteriorated. His foot is aching, his arms feel numb from time to time. In the hospital, the psychotherapist diagnosed him with «posttraumatic stress disorder».   

The comment by CAT lawyer:  

«We have already applied to the Internal Security Department of the Regional Chief Directorate of the Ministry of the Interior with a request to conduct an agency check with regard to the police officers.  Today we also submitted a crime report to the Investigative Committee. The nature of the injuries coincides with the Victor’s version of the events. We shall be insisting that the actions of the criminal investigations officers, as well as the of the local district police officer, were checked and assessed».   

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