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

Common laborer Khasan Islamov* from Savelyevskaya village of the Chechen Republic told human rights defenders that the police officers seized him from his home in February 2019.  He spent two months at the police department, his apprehension was not officially registered in any way, and later on he was accused of organizing an illegal armed group. According to the young man, he confessed after repeated battery and electricity torture.      

In the beginning of September 2019, Tabarik Islamova applied to the North Caucasus branch of the CAT. She told human rights defenders that on February 3, 2019, in Savelyevskaya village of the Chechen Republic the police officers apprehended her three sons: Khasan, Khusein and Kharon. Khusein and Kharon were released almost immediately, and Khasan was kept in the police department.     

Only in the end of September 2019 the lawyers managed to receive explanations from Khasan, when he was at the Pre-Trial Detention Center. Islamov told human rights defenders that after the apprehension in February he was delivered to the police department for the Naursky District.  There, two police officers were beating and kicking him, hitting him with a stick, demanding that he signed full confession: that he, allegedly, planned the attack against law-enforcement officers.   

«The police officer asked that a stick was brought to him. He hit with it against the table and a corner of the table broke off. He said, “Think what will happen to you when I start to hit you with it”.  Then, they made me listen to an audio record with my friend’s battery and his shouts», — Khasan recalls.

Later on, Islamov was moved to the police regiment named after Akhmat-Khadzhi Kadyrov, where he was beaten up with a hose made of reinforced plastic and tortured with electricity. Then, according to Khasan, he was handed over to the police officers at the District Department of Interior for the Zavodsky District of Chechnya, where he spent two months in a garage. A friend of his accompanied him, he was also forced to confess of involvement in an illegal armed group.    

«I heard tortures of other people every day in that garage», — Khasan recalled. 

Charges were brought against Khasan and his apprehension was registered only on 1 April 2019. In April 2022, the court declared Khasan to be guilty of organizing an illegal armed group (Article 208 of the Criminal Code) and of illegal storage of fire arms (Article 222 of the Criminal Code). He was sentenced to 6.5 years of penal colony. In court, Khasan denied his involvement in the charged crimes and claimed that his confessions were forced by tortures.    

The CAT lawyers and Islamov’s mother repeatedly applied to the investigative authorities and the Prosecutor’s Office with regard to what befell him. Since August 2019 and till the present time, the check with regard to the police officers has been going on in the Sheikh-Mansursky Investigative Department of Grozny. 10 dismissals of claims to open criminal case were issued, which were quashed by the head of the investigative authority and the prosecutor.  After quashing, the investigator was repeatedly instructed on necessary checking activities, which have not been executed till now.  

On 8 February, in the Staropromyslovsky District Court of Grozny, a court hearing took place: the CAT lawyers appealed against the latest illegal dismissal of the claim to open a criminal case. During the court hearing, it became known that the material is re-submitted for additional check. Due to that, the court dismissed the proceedings with regard to the application.   

The comment by CAT lawyer:  

«There is no doubt that upon the expiry of the time of the additional check, the investigator will issue an identical procedural ruling and his superiors’ instructions will be ignored. Since the check has been going on for more than three years, many necessary actions can be no longer taken: for example, to question the witnesses of the apprehension or establish who was in custody together with Islamov. We observe another case of the investigator sabotaging the investigation. He is dragging on the checks, his superior quashes the rulings, however, once and again the investigator does not correct the revealed drawbacks. Unfortunately, such malpractice happens in our work pretty often».    

^{* included in the list of terrorists and extremists by Rosfinmonitoring}