Almost seven years of pre-investigation inquiry, ten illegal rulings to refuse to initiate criminal proceedings and a complaint to the European Court of Human Rights submitted to human rights defenders – only after that the investigators of the Shakhunsky Interdistrict Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of the RF for the Nizhny Novgorod region initiated a criminal case based on the fact of Denis Kramchaninonv’s torture in the Shakhunsky Police Department.
Human rights defenders with the Committee for the Prevention of Torture obtained a copy of the ruling to initiate criminal proceedings with regards to crime under item “a” part 3 Article 286 of the Criminal Code of the RF (“abuse of office with the use of violence”). The criminal case is opened against former investigative officer of the Department of the Interior for the Shakhunsky District Andrey Tumanov.
As we have previously reported, Denis Kramchaninov applied to the Committee Against Torture in June 2010. At that time he told the human rights defenders that he was severely beaten by a local police officer who was forcing the young man to sign a false self-accusation of committing a theft.
As Kramchaninov reported in his explanation, in the evening of 15 July 2010 he was brought from his home to the police department of Shakhunya town. Inside the office premises the police officer demanded that the guy confessed of theft, after that he hit him several times with his fists against the head, pressed his fingers with pliers, and, having put the gas mask on the young man, made him do knee bends. The battery and torture lasted about two hours, after that Denis yielded and agreed to sign a full confession, which was dictated to him by the police officer. When in the evening of the same day the young man applied to the Shakhunskaya District hospital doctors diagnosed him with a cerebral concussion and registered some hematomas on his body.
The criminal case on theft initiated against Denis was dismissed in a short time due to failure to prove the young man’s guilt.
For almost seven years human rights defenders were insisting on opening the criminal case based on Denis torture report: during this time ten refusals to initiate criminal proceedings were issued, subsequently they were declared illegal and quashed. In August of last year lawyers with the Committee for the Prevention of Torture applied to the European Court of Human Rights in the interests of Denis Kramchaninov.
Last week human rights defenders learned about the criminal case initiated based on the fact of Kramchaninov’s torture.
“It is hard to tell what was preventing the investigators from Shakhusk to perform the necessary checking activities and initiate criminal proceedings for all these years, – lawyer with the INGO “The Committee for the Prevention of Torture” Danil Chendemerov, representing the interests of Denis Kramchaninov, comments. – At the present time, Denis openly admits that he no longer believes that the guilty party would be brought to responsibility, that is why the investigators need to work hard to restore his faith. We, in our turn, will continue representing Denis’ interests, this time in the framework of the initiated criminal case”.