Despite the fact that the criminal case with regard to crime under item “a” part 3 Article 386 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“abuse of office with the use of violence”) was initiated back on 15 November of last year, it took Aleksey Samoshin from Yoshkar-Ola more than four months to be declared a victim.
(Aleksey Samoshin)
Aleksey Samoshin applied to the Committee for the Prevention of Torture for legal assistance on 16 January 2017. He told human rights defenders that on 15 August 2014 he was beaten up by the police officer at the Department of Federal Service of the Russian Federation for the Control of Drug Trafficking for the Mari El Republic.
According to Samoshin, on that day he was transferred from the Yoshkar-Ola Investigation Cell to the Department of Federal Service of the Russian Federation for the Control of Drug Trafficking for familiarization with the materials of the criminal case initiated against him.
– On the second floor of the Department I was put face to the wall, – Samoshin recalls. – Due to the fact that the handcuffs compressed my hands a lot, I asked the police officer who stood nearby to let them loose. In response he only snarled and hit me with a fist on the back of my neck, after that I hit against the wall with my forehead.
After that, according to Samoshin, the same police officer hit him several times at the back of his neck, this time in the presence of his colleagues, but stopped the application of physical force after their critical remarks.
After familiarization with the criminal case Aleksey Samoshin returned to the Pre-Trial Detention Facility. There he was examined by the paramedic, who registered the bruises from handcuffs, bruises in the area of the forehead, concussions of the hairy part of the head.
After the incident Samoshin applied to the Investigative Committee with a crime report. Based on the result of the pre-investigative check the investigator issued a refusal to initiate criminal proceedings. However, this refusal of the investigator and four more subsequent ones have been declared illegal by the Prosecutor’s Office and quashed.
As a result, on 15 November 2016 the Investigative Department for Yoshkar-Ola of the Investigative Directorate of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Republic of Mari El opened a criminal case for an offence under item “a” Part 3 Article 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“abuse of office with the use of violence”).
However, despite initiating the criminal case and conducting the investigative activities with the participation of Aleksey Samoshkin, investigator Tatyana Ametova refused to declare him a victim. The investigator provided the following rationale: “at the present time the investigation received no evidence that Samoshin was inflicted physical, property or moral damage as a result of criminal actions”.
Aleksey Samoshin from the Committee for the Prevention of Torture appealed against this ruling of the investigator in court.
– Today in the course of the court hearing it has become known that the investigator’s ruling was quashed on 21 February of this year and Aleksey Samoshin is declared a victim in this criminal case, – lawyer of the Committee for the Prevention of Torture Dmitry Yalikov, representing his interests in court, reports.
According to Yalikov, now he intends to bring investigator Tatyana Ametova to responsibility, as well as to insist on being declared a representative of victim Samoshin, this time for the criminal case.