Sergey Novikov from Moscow accuses bailiffs of the Kuzminsky District Court of illegally applying physical force against him and handcuffing him. According to Novikov, that was the result of his attempt to familiarize with the materials of the civil case, in which he acts as a representative.
(Sergey Novikov)
In his application to the Committee Against Torture for legal support, Sergey Novikov explained that on 21 November of this year he intended to familiarize with the materials of the civil case in the Kuzminsky District Court of Moscow. Starting from May he represents the interests of his relatives (via the power of attorney) who are suing the Facility Manager because their apartment was flooded. Civil office secretary provided Sergey with two volumes and he started to photograph them. In the course of familiarization, he revealed a lot of drawbacks in the way the case materials were drawn up and decided to make not only photos but also videos so that the violations in questions were more obvious.
When the secretary noticed that Novikov was commenting aloud the violations committed by the court and performing video recording of the materials of the case, she demanded that he stopped and then she called the bailiffs. After some dispute Novikov decided to yield to demands of the bailiffs to get out of the court office and he went to the court expedition to submit a complaint against preventing the familiarization with the case materials.
According to Novikov, bailiffs prevented this as well – they brought him to their service premise, located at the entrance to the court, and demanded that he went with them to the other office for drawing up an administrative violation report. According to Sergey, the dispute about who of them was violating the law ended with one of the bailiffs starting to press him with his forearm in the area of the neck and chest, and the others forced Sergey’s hands behind his back and handcuffed him.
– Bailiffs started to shout addressing me: “Bastard! We will sort you out”. Based on the colors of my jacket they determined that I was Bandera supporter (“benderovets”), and told me that the likes of me should be excluded from the civilized society, – Sergey Novikov recalls.
In about fifteen minutes the Rosgvardiya officers arrived at the court. Sergey got uncuffed, after that a report on administrative violation with relation to him was drawn up. An hour and a half later the police officers, who arrived at the court, transported Novikov to the Department of the Interior for Kuzminski District.
According to Novikov, at the police department he was given a writ of summons to the court hearing which was supposed to take place on the next day, and then they brought him to Ryazansky prospect metro station.
Sergey made it home and then to the first aid station where doctors registered the following injuries: “Contusion of the chest, contusion of the 4th finger of the right hand, bruise of the second finger of the left hand and bruises of soft tissues of both wrist joints”.
Based on this incident, on 6 December lawyers with the Committee Against Torture applied to the Investigative Committee with a crime report. Now, a pre-investigation check is being performed.
On 18 December, a court hearing on administrative case with relation to Sergey Novikov took place at justice of the peace Petr Dobrovolsky. Sergey was charged with failure to comply with the legal order of the bailiff (Part 2, Article 17.3, Code of the Russian Federation on Administrative Offenses). Novikov’s representative filed six motions, including concerning important witnesses, however, the court either simply dismissed them or just ignored them, without passing any ruling. As a result, the judge announced the judicial decree – declare Sergey Novikov guilty of administrative offence and impose a fine in the amount of five hundred roubles.
“As soon as we familiarize ourselves with the court ruling in its final form, we well, definitely, appeal against it”, – lawyer with the Committee Against Torture Dmitry Piskounov, representing Sergey Novikov’s interests, says. – We will also continue conducting our own public investigation based on the complaint from our applicant and will be insisting on effective official check at the Investigative Committee”.