Today, 17 January 2018, judge of the Shakhunsky District Court of the Nizhny Novgorod region Valentina Smelova passed a judgment of conviction with regard to former investigative officer of the Department of the Interior for the Shakhunsky District Andrey Tumanov, who was declared guilty of committing a crime under item “a” part 3 Article 286 of the Criminal Code of the RF (“abuse of office with the use of violence”) and sentenced to four years’ conditional term.
(Andrey Tumanov)
As we have previously reported, Denis Kramchaninov applied to the Committee Against Torture in July 2010. At that time, he told the human rights defenders that he was severely beaten by a local police officer who was forcing the young man to sign a false self-accusation of committing a street theft.
As Kramchaninov reported in his explanation, in the evening of 15 July 2010 he was brought from his home to the Shakhun police department of town. Inside the office premises the police officer demanded that the guy confessed of a street theft, after that he hit him several times with his fists against the head, pressed his fingers with pliers, and, having put the gas mask on the young man, made him do knee bends. The battery and torture lasted for about two hours, after that Denis yielded and agreed to sign a full confession, which was dictated to him by the police officer. When in the evening of the same day the young man applied to the Shakhunskaya District hospital doctors diagnosed him with a cerebral concussion and registered some hematomas on his body.
The criminal case on theft initiated against Denis was dismissed in a short time due to failure to prove the young man’s guilt.
For almost seven years human rights defenders were insisting on opening the criminal case based on Denis torture report: during this time ten refusals to initiate criminal proceedings were issued, subsequently they were declared illegal and quashed. In August 2016 the Committee’s lawyers applied to the European Court of Human Rights in the interests of Denis Kramchaninov.
On 29 May 2017 the criminal case was opened in relation to former investigative officer of the Department of the Interior for the Shakhunsky District Andrey Tumanov, who is accused of committing a crime under item “a” part 3 Article 286 of the Criminal Code of the RF (“abuse of office with the use of violence”).
The preliminary investigation of the criminal case took about two months and after the assertion of the indictment by the Prosecutor it was sent to court for evaluation on its merits.
On 15 December of last year in the course of the court hearing State Prosecutor Sergey Lunin requested a punishment in the form of six years of prison term with serving the sentence in a standard security penal colony. The victim stated that he would be satisfied with any judgement of conviction. The defendant did not acknowledge his guilt in the course of the court investigation, he refused to provide evidence, using the constitutional right not to testify against oneself.
Today, judge of the Shakhunsky District Court of the Nizhny Novgorod region Valentina Smelova passed a judgement of conviction with regard to former special investigator of the Department of the Interior for the Shakhunsky District Andrey Tumanov. He was declared guilty of committing a crime under item “a” part 3 Article 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“abuse of office using violence”) and sentenced to four years of conditional term.
“Despite the fact that the court sentenced the former police officer to punishment, not involving real jail time, Denis thinks that this verdict is sufficient for the defendant to get sensible of his guilt. After the verdict enters into legal force we will apply to court with a suit against the Ministry of the Interior of Russia seeking for compensation of moral damage inflicted to Denis Kramchaninov by the criminal actions of the convicted former police officer”, – lawyer with the Committee Against Torture Sergey Babinets, representing the interests of Denis Kramchaninov, commented.