Andrey Bodashko from the Orenburg region claims that the police officers of Police Department No.1 of Orsk broke his hand when he attempted to go home from the police department. Lawyers with the Committee Against Torture conducted a public inquiry and came to conclusion that the police officers behaved in a very non-professional manner – even if they had the grounds for applying force, they should have minimized the risk of inflicting severe injuries to Mr Bodashko. Based on the results of the check, the Investigation Committee six times refused to initiate criminal proceedings, and resent the battery complaint twice to the same police department.
Andrey Bodashko told human rights defenders that in the morning of 2 April 2019 he came to visit a friend of his. On that day he had an acute condition of his chronic illness, and the arrived medics hospitalized him. Andrey was allowed to follow his friend. According to Bodashko, for a long time his friend was provided with any assistance at hospital, that is why he started to voice claims against medics and “a couple of times knocked on the door with a toe-cap of his shoe”. Some time after that, two officers of private security company arrived, then – two police officers who questioned the medics and delivered Andrey to the police department.
According to Andrey, no actions were performed to him at the police department. To his question why he was delivered there, one of the officers replied “for you to sit and think”. Andrey claimed that he was about to leave the police department because he was not detained neither arrested. At the exit two police officers caught him up, twisted his arms behind his back and brought him back to the office room.
“When they brought me to the office room, the police officers started to insult me with obscene invectives, at the same time twisting my arms stronger and inflicting me severe pain. At that moment I felt a blow at the right hand higher than ankle and felt a sharp pain which caused me to pass out”, – Andrey described.
The police officers stick to a different version, that Bodashko was using invectives at the police department, and hit one of the police officers in the chest. According to their explanations, Andrey got his fracture himself, when he attempted to resist to twisting his arms behind his back: he sharply sat and rose while his arms were held.
An ambulance was called for victim Bodashko, which delivered him to hospital where he underwent a surgery. On the next day, a protocol was drawn up with regard to Andrey, which stated that he: “used obscene invectives at hospital, shouted, knocked on the door, violated the public order with his actions”.
On 3 April, Andrey’s parents applied to the Investigative Department for Orsk of the Investigative Committee of the RF for the Orenburg region with a crime report, but the investigators were not in much hurry to perform a check. The Investigative Committee officers twice illegally redirected the crime report to the same police department against the officers of which Andrey was complaining. From this department the material was sent back twice. As a result, the investigators had to conduct a check, based on the results of which they refused to open a criminal case for six times, five of these refusals were subsequently declared illegal. At the present time, human rights defenders appeal against the sixth statement on refusal to initiate criminal proceedings.
“After the dismissal of another illegal ruling the checking was conducted drowsily, with a lack of spirit. The investigators did not seize the video records from the police department in time, due to that they were irrevocably lost. For a long time, they did not question the witnesses and participants of the events of that day. The checking activities, including assigning the expert examinations, were conducted by the investigators only after our complaints and motions, – lawyer with the Committee Against Torture Timur Rakhmatullin comments. – In the end of last year, a number of executive authorities of the Investigative Department were brought to responsibility for violations committed during the check”.
In the framework of the check an expert examination was performed, based on the results of which the specialists pointed out that inflicting bodily injuries on Bodashko in circumstances which the police officers refer to, is not excluded.
“During the whole period of the check, the investigators did not conduct a detailed analysis of the police officers’ actions from the point of view of professionalism, feasibility of applying force which led to inflicting a severe damage to health, – Timur Rakhmatulin emphasizes. – We think that even if we agree with the investigative authorities that the police officers did not abuse their authority, their actions amount to brutal treatment from the point of view of the practice of the European Court of Human Rights, that is why they should be thoroughly investigated in the framework of the opened criminal case with regard to inflicting a severe damage to health”.