Conclusion of the “European Bureau of Forensic Experts” confirmed that the traumas of Roman Gusev from Nizhny Novgorod could have been inflicted by police officer Aleksandr Merkulov. Lawyer with the Committee Against Torture Kristina Diogidze commented on the situation.

Gusev was diagnosed with numerous fractures of facial bones, basal skull fracture and fractures of three ribs after an attempt to steal a bottle of whisky from a supermarket. According to Gusev, the police officer must have lost his temper because the apprehended ignored his questions during the conversation with another police officer.

Merkulov claimed that Gusev fell face down on the metal shelf in the car, and then Merkulov himself fell over him – allegedly, due to loss of balance. Still, the video record from the surveillance camera (available with the Committee) shows the police officer wringing Gusev’s leg, bending it against the car body and pulling him out of the car. The apprehended in response hits Merkulov with his hand, after that the police officer comes inside the car, closes the door and the car starts shaking – Gusev claims that at that time Merkulov was beating him up. Later on, Gusev comes out of the car, bending, and is spitting blood.

The specialist’s conclusion showed that Gusev was hit in the chest at least three times, which caused ribs fracture, and his head was hit once with a solid blunt object. The specialist deemed the version of the police officer to be groundless. It happened due to the fact that the investigator did not request and provide the full scope the medical documents received by Gusev in the medical institutions. Thus, the expert examined only a small portion of documents, due to that he did not have any data on Gusev’s ribs fracture.

In September of this year, the court sentenced Gusev to one year and ten months of maximum security penal colony for applying violence against a police officer (Part 1 of Article 318 of the Criminal Code).

— There is a saying: “people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones…” I’m talking about the state which convicted a man to almost two years for a bruise of a police officer, but it is as though it does not see the broken facial bones, teeth and ribs. Thanks to the obtained conclusion one may draw conclusions that the police officers lied to the investigation and to the court about the circumstances of the event and that without the public control the Investigative Committee cannot normally conduct investigations, — Diogidze concluded. 

The Committee Against Torture will be insisting that the police officer is brought to criminal responsibility for illegal, ungrounded and excessively brutal violence applied against the convict.