In the Nizhny Novgorod region, the pre-investigation check of a complaint from Andrey Dvortsov, accusing the police officers of brutal battery during his apprehension in 2016, is resumed. As we have previously reported, last year Mr Dvortsov himself was convicted for using violence against the authority representative.
(Andrey Dvortsov after the apprehension)
On 26 September 2016, Manshuk Dvortsova from Druzhny settlement in Nizhny Novgorod region applied to human rights defenders with a complaint on using force against her husband, Andrey, by the policemen.
Later on, Mr Dvortsov clarified this day around 8 p.m. he was outside in the street with two friends. The man had drunk some alcohol before that. According to Andrey, when they were approached by three policemen who started to ask something, he ran away.
– One of the policemen caught me and performed a reap. I fell on the ground and was handcuffed from behind. After that they were beating me for a minute or so. At some point I fell unconscious, – Dvortsov remembers.
Andrey explained that he was working as a plumber. That day he was coming back from work wearing a uniform where he had a knife in one of the sleeves which is necessary for his work. As Andrey assumes, the reason for a sudden rage of the policemen was that when one of them was catching him by the sleeve and handcuffing him, he cut his hand.
Andrey spent the night at the police department. The next day he was given a statement with two fines for 500 rubles each for appearing drunk in a public place and disobedience of the legal order of the policeman.
On the same day, he recorded the received injuries in the local first-aid station: brain concussion, bruises on the face, left earflap, shoulders, anterior abdominal wall, left forearm, left scapular region, left cnemis, lumbar region, left knee-joint area, right hip, scratch marks on the right knee-joint area and parietal region.
On the next day Andrey’s condition got worse and he had to spend eight days in city hospital No. 39 of Nizhny Novgorod. After that he spent over three weeks having ambulant therapy.
During his treatment, Andrey learnt about initiating a criminal case against him for attacking a policeman. It took investigator Abanina four months to investigate this case.
Mr Dvortsov himself also applied to the Investigative Committee with a complaint against the police officers. The same investigator Abanina was assigned to perform the check of this complaint. By the present moment five refusals to initiate criminal proceedings have been issued, four of which were subsequently declared illegal and quashed. Now the human rights defenders are appealing against the last refusal.
On 7 December of last year, the Kstovo City Court has declared Andrey Dvorstov guilty of committing the 2 Article 318 of the Criminal Code of Russia (“applying violence against the representative of authority, threatening to life or health”). The court imposed him a penalty in the form of three years of prison term in a standard security penal colony. By the present time, the verdict has been appealed against.
Today the lawyers with the Committee Against Torture learned that the ruling dated 21 April of last year on refusal to initiate a criminal case based on the fact of applying violence against Dvortsov by the police officers was quashed by the decision of the superiors of the regional Investigative Department.
“Investigator Elena Lyadskaya informed us about it, she is conducting additional check of Andrey Dvortsov’s complaint, – lawyer with the Committee Against Torture Anastasia Nikitina says. – According to the dwellers of Druzhny settlement, the Investigative Committee officers recently conducted checking activities at the incident site; it is also known that several witnesses were called in for additional questioning”.