The Investigative Committee initiated a criminal case with regard to the fact of negligence by an officer of the Krasnodar Pre-Trial Facility No.1 – according to the investigative authorities, he did not perform necessary measures to prevent the conflict of Dmitry Kraskovskiy with his cell mate, as a result of which Dmitry was beaten to death.
As we have previously reported, on 16 July 2020, Anna Kraskovskaya applied to the Committee Against Torture for legal assistance. According to her, on 3 June, 2020 her husband Dmitry Kraskovskiy was apprehended by the police officers under suspicion of having committed a crime provided for in item “d” of Part 4 Article 228.1 of the Criminal Code of Russia (“illegal manufacture, sales or transmittal of narcotic substances on a large scale”). After the apprehension, the court took Dmitry into custody at Pre-Trial Detention Facility No.1 of Krasnodar. On 7 July 2020, at about 00.30, Kraskovskiy’s corpse was found in a cell of the Pre-Trial Detention Facility “with bodily injuries in the form of numerous contused wounds of the head, a closed craniocerebral injury”.
Investigator with the Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of the RF for the Central District of Krasnodar Sergey Kalashnikov told Anna that, according to the preliminary version, Dmitry was beaten up to death by his cell-mates: “He said that my husband was beaten by cell-mates who were beating him with a stick which they pulled out of the floor. Trying to cover the cause of death, they attempted to hang him, staging a suicide”.
On the same day, 7 July 2020, investigator Kalashnikov initiated a criminal case on the elements of crime provided for in Part 4 of Article 111 of the Criminal Code of the RF (“intended infliction of severe damage to health which by negligence caused the victim’s death”).
On 14 August, investigator Artem Kosarenko, seconded to the Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of the RF for the Central District of Krasnodar, initiated a criminal case against an unidentified officer of Pre-Trial Detention Facility No.1 of Krasnodar based on the elements of crime provided under part 2 of Article 293 of the Criminal Code of the RF (“negligent homicide”).
Today, the lawyers with the Committee Against Torture received a copy of this ruling, in which, among other things, it is stated: “It is established that in the period before 00 hours 30 minutes on 07.07.2020, an unidentified officer of Pre-Trial Detention Facility No.1 of Krasnodar with the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia for the Krasnodar region, whose duties involve organization and control of compliance with the requirements of Federal law No.103 by the persons taken into custody in the part of the custodial control, despite the goals and objectives of custodial control, in conditions of isolation from society and with intentional negligence of his service duties, foreseeing the possibility of consequences threatening to the public good through unconscientious and negligent attitude to the service, but without sufficient grounds, presumptuously counting on their prevention, however, with adequate attention and precautiousness they could and should have foreseen them, intending to execute their criminal intention, realizing they did not have lawful rights for inaction, did not take measures for observing the requirements of the custody regime by the apprehended persons, which led to the possibility of Kraskovskiy’s cell mate (his name is mentioned in the resolution – comment by the author) to commit the crime which led to the death of the victim, as well as to serious violation of the interests of the society and the state, protected by the law”.
“We welcome the initiation of criminal proceedings into negligence, since the Detention Center officers were obliged to do everything in their power to provide safety of the citizens in custody, – lawyer with the Committee Against Torture Ilya Platonov, representing the interests of Anna Kraskovskaya, comments. – We also submitted an application to the Department of the Federal Penitentiary Service for the Krasnodar Territory, demanding that the internal check is performed not only with regard to low-ranking officers who were on duty that night, but also to the institution’s superiors”.