The Internal Security Administration of the Directorate of the Interior and investigation authorities keep silent.

   The Interregional Committee against Torture has started checking the application of Vitaly Balabanov from Nizhny Novgorod who applied to the Committee on 14 January 2010. The young man has reported that on 1 December 2009 at about 2 a.m. he was driving his car (of VAZ 2107 type) in the Sovetskaya Square. Suddenly the traffic police started pursuing him.  He heard the police ordering him to stop on the wayside. When Vitaly stopped, an officer jumped out of the police car, dragged Vitaly out of his car and put him on the ground.  Several other officers came out of the police car and told Mr. Balabanov that he was a carjacker.  The police raised Vitaly from the ground, twisted his armed behind his back, one of the officers hit him on the back with his knee making Vitaly bump into the police car hood. Mr. Balabanov told the police that he had not hijacked anything and the car belonged to him. The police checked the documents confirming that Vitaly owned the car, prepared an administrative offense protocol for overdue temporary license plates and let the man go.

When Mr. Balabanov came home he felt unwell. He called in an ambulance which took him to hospital where he was diagnosed with an arm fracture and brain contusion.

Vitaly Balabanov applied to the Nizhny Novgorod regional Internal Security Administration of the Directorate of the Interiorand to the Sovietsky district Investigation Department of the IA of the IC under the RF Prosecutor’s Office for Nizhny Novgorod region to report about the police abuse. 

Neither the Internal Security Administration, nor the Investigation Department responded to his application. Specialists of the Committee against Torture intend to conduct a thorough check under Vitaly’s application, establish the facts and press for initiation of criminal proceedings against the police.