(Aleksey Nikitin with signs of bodily injuries)
Aleksey Nikitin from Nizhny Novgorod applied to the Interregional Non-government organization «The Committee for Prevention of Torture» for legal assistance. He reported to have been subjected to battery and electric shocker torture in police department No.2 of the Nizhny Novgorod Regional Office of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, in the result of which he was forced to bear false witness against himself on committing a robbery. Human rights defenders initiated a public investigation with regard to Nikitin’s application.
In his application Aleksey reported that in the evening of 4 November when he was walking the dog he found a handbag, picked it up and brought home. Inside the bad there was a mobile phone by which Aleksey contacted the relatives of the handbag’s owner. He learned from the conversation that the bag belonged to an elderly lady who was robbed in the street some time ago. Having appointed a meeting with the relatives of the victim in order to hand the bag over to them, Aleksey and his wife and another married couple who happened to be their guests that evening went out in the street.
Then, according to Aleksey, the events evolved in the following way: apart from the victim’s relatives there were police officers at the meeting place who apprehended him and took him to the Kanavinsky police department where he spent the night in the cell for the administratively detained. On the next day, according to Nikitin, the police officer started to force him to confess of robbery: after verbal threats he hit him with electric shocker in the chest and groin areas. «This lasted for about 10-15 minutes. After that the police officer whom I talked with, hit me one more time in the back of the neck. He said: «Now you should think it over thoroughly» and left the room. After that, intending to avoid being subjected to physical violence, I said that I was ready to provide a full confession», – Aleksey told the human rights defenders.
On 6 November Nikitin was released under the written pledge not to leave town, after that he applied to the Prosecutor’s Office of the Kanavinsky District as well as to the Committee for Prevention of Torture.
In the framework of the check with regard to Nikitin’s application the human rights defenders organized his forensic medical examination in the regional bureau of the forensics and had him examined by an urologist and a cardiologist. The following bodily injuries were registered in the doctor’s report: «bruise of the left orbital cavity, haemorrhagic crusts due to the electricty effect on the posterior surface of the neck, on the front surface of the chest and on the scrotum’s skin».
In the present time the human rights defenders are waiting for the forensic medical examination report, which should answer the additional questions concerning the circumstances in which Nikitin developed his bodily injuries.
Lawyer of INGO «The Committee for Prevention of Torture» Ilya Khorshev: «We already submitted a crime report on behalf of the applicant to the Investigative Department for the Kanavinsly District of the Investigative Committee of the RF for the Nizhny Novgorod region, which commenced conducting a pre-investigation check. In our turn, we also continue the public investigation».