НАСТОЯЩИЙ МАТЕРИАЛ (ИНФОРМАЦИЯ) ПРОИЗВЕДЕН, РАСПРОСТРАНЕН И (ИЛИ) НАПРАВЛЕН ИНОСТРАННЫМ АГЕНТОМ «КОМАНДА ПРОТИВ ПЫТОК» ЛИБО КАСАЕТСЯ ДЕЯТЕЛЬНОСТИ ИНОСТРАННОГО АГЕНТА «КОМАНДА ПРОТИВ ПЫТОК» | 18+
Semyon Sukhinin ended up in the Anapa police station on suspicion of stealing money from a bank card. As the young man recalls, he was beaten there, being threatened and forced to confess to the crime. Mr. Sukhinin refused to sign a confession, and, after leaving the police, he applied to the lawyers of the Crew Against Torture.
19-year-old chef Semyon Sukhinin told human rights defenders that on 29 May 2023, at about 17:00, at the entrance of his apartment he encountered a man who introduced himself as an officer of the criminal investigation police unit. The policeman said that Semyon had to сome with him to the police station for half an hour. Mr. Sukhinin agreed, took some insulin in his flat, as he suffers from diabetes, and got into the police car. There were two people in the car, Semyon recalls. One of the officers immediately began to threaten him:
«He asked me if I understood why I was being arrested. Actually, I didn’t understand, so then he continued: “When we arrive at the police station, I will beat you like one smashes a total bitch, so you’d tell us everything.” Then they handcuffed me,» the young man recalls.
The policemen brought Semyon to the Anapa city police station; as Mr. Sukhinin underlines, they did not register him anywhere, but immediately took him to the office of the criminal investigation unit. The policemen claimed that they had evidence that allegedly Semyon had stolen money from the bank card of a woman unknown to him. He was asked to confess to that crime. There were four officers in the room.
«I continued to deny everything, and then the policeman hit my face several times with his palm. The officers threw me to the floor, I was lying in handcuffs, they put a chair on me so that I could not move, and they started beating me on different parts of my body. One of the policemen clamped my neck with both legs and began to choke me,» Mr. Sukhinin indicates.
Semyon informed them that he had diabetes and could feel bad. Then the officers put him on a chair, and after hitting the back of his head with a hand, they no longer beat him. They removed the handcuffs and gave him some water. The policemen offered him to sign several documents, including a confession to the theft. Simon refused to sign it.
Subsequently, the young man, according to him, was taken to the duty unit and handed over to two traffic police officers; it was about 21:00. Mr. Sukhinin does not remember which medical facility he was taken to, but he told the nurse that he had been beaten at the police station. After a negative test for drug and alcohol intoxication, Mr. Sukhinin was returned to the police station.
Semyon recalls that he was met by a policeman there who forced the young man to write a statement that he had received an injury under his eye in a domestic accident. After that, Mr. Sukhinin was placed in a detention cell, where he spent the night.
The next day, he was brought to the Anapa city court and charged with disobedience to the lawful demands of a police officer (Part 1 of Article 19.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses). During the hearings Semyon found out that he allegedly walked down the street, looked around suspiciously, and when the police approached him, he resisted, refused to show his ID and pushed the officers away. Mr. Sukhinin pleaded not guilty and the judge postponed the hearings. After consulting with a lawyer, Semyon pleaded guilty the next day. The court sentenced him to two days of administrative detention, which expired at about 22:00 on the same day.
The next day, Mr. Sukhinin went to a private clinic, where he was diagnosed with a concussion; it was later confirmed by the forensic medical examination bureau, establishing a mild bodily harm.
Besides, Semyon did not agree with the court ruling on disobedience to the police and took CCTV recordings of the building’s surveillance cameras from the house’s management. The video, which is at the disposal of the Crew Against Torture, demonstrates that Mr. Sukhinin calmly gets into the car and does not offer any resistance. The lawyers of the CAT challenged the decision of the Anapa city court before the regional court, having attached video recordings and pointed to other evidence of the unlawful arrest of Semyon Sukhinin.
The Crew Against Torture, representing Semyon’s interests, also lodged a crime report with with the Investigative Committee and the prosecutor’s office demanding to open an inquiry into the actions of the police officers.