Today, on 18 May 2017, judge of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Bashkortostan Rais Gabitov did not change the measure of restraint in the form of house arrest for special investigative agent of Criminal Investigation Department of the Department of Interior for the Chishminsky District Ilmir Amirkhanov, who is accused of lacerating the spleen of Denis Yamagulov from Kara-Yakulovo settlement. The Prosecutor’s Office representatives and lawyers with the Committee for the Prevention of Torture insisted on harsher punishment, however, their arguments did not convince the judge.
(Photo: lawyer with the Committee for the Prevention of Torture Yevgeny Litvinov and victim Denis Yumagulov)
As we have previously reported, on 2 May 2017 Denis Yamagulov applied to the Committee for the Prevention of Torture for legal assistance. As he explained to human rights defenders, on 4 April of this year two police officers came to his place and suggested that he went with them to narcological dispensary for delivery of medical tests, allegedly, as a part of the planned activity for drug addicts detection. Denis agreed, however, when he found himself in a car he realized he was being taken to the Department of the Interior for the Chishminsky District of the Republic of Bashkortostan.
– When I saw the building of the police I asked the police officers why we came here, and I received a response “We are going to take your fingerprints and then we’ll go for a medical check”, – Denis said.
However, according to Denis, at the department the police officers started to demand that he confessed of theft of things from “Macho” shop – allegedly his acquaintance pointed at him as the perpetrator.
– After I refused to confess the police officer demanded that I stood up from a chair. Then he started to beat me up with his fists, first he punched me in the stomach, and after I bent over – in my back, – Yamagulov recalled.
After that, according to Denis, the police officers again suggested that he confessed, if otherwise, they promised to plant drugs on him. As a result, he agreed and signed the required confession under orders.
According to Denis, he was interrogated as a suspect on a theft case, after that he also took part in other investigative activities. Then the police officers suggested that he drank some vodka with one of them. At first Denis refused but he was threatened to be kept at the police department for two more days, and he was forced to drink about 150 grams of vodka.
– I went out of the police department and walked about one hundred meters in the direction of taxi parking. I was stopped by the Patrol-Guard Service officer, who told me I was drunk and I should proceed to the police department.
Denis was taken back to the police department where the police officers compiled a protocol for being drunk and disorderly, and he himself was taken to the cell for the administratively detained. On the next day, 5 April, the justice court of the Chishminsky region passed a ruling on administrative arrest for seven days with regard to Yamagulov.
According to Denis, during his stay under arrest in the Temporary Detention Cell, located in the Department of the Interior of the Chishminsky district, he was regularly beaten up by the police officers, demanding that he confessed of two other thefts. After another beating on 7 April Denis felt extremely bad: “At ten o’clock there was a bedtime, and I tried to lie on the bed but couldn’t due to sharp pain in my stomach. I started to call for help and the penitentiary officer called for the ambulance. While we were going to the hospital my stomach began to swell a lot, and I realized it was internal hemorrhage”.
Denis was taken to the intensive care of the Central hospital of Chishma, where he underwent an urgent surgery for removal of his lacerated spleen. He spent` two weeks in hospital and on 21 April he was discharged.
In the hospital discharge summary the doctors described the following diagnosis: “Closed trauma of the stomach. Lacerated spleen. Intraabdominal hemorrhage. Complication: hemorrhagic shock 1-2 degree of severity. hemorrhagic anemia of medium severity”.
On 8 April the district hospital sent a report to the Chishminsky interdistrict investigative department of the Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee on detecting bodily injuries of Mr Yamagulov. Later on Denis mother applied to the Prosecutor’s Office and he himself.
As a result, on 5 May a criminal case based on the crime under p.p.”а, v” of Part 3 of Article 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Abuse of office using violence and inflicting grave consequences”). On the same day Denis Yamagulov was declared a victim, and the first suspect appeared in the case – Special Investigative Agent of the Criminal Investigations Department of the Department of the Interior for the Chushminsky District Ilmir Amirkhanov. On 12 May charges against him were brought.
On 6 May judge of the Chishminsky District Court Nail Yakupov declined the motion of investigator Ildar Gindullin concerning bringing the defendant into custody, contenting with house arrest as a measure of restraint.
The Prosecutor’s Office representative was not satisfied with this ruling and appealed against it at the Supreme Court of the Republic of Bashkortostan. Today judge Rais Gabitov dismissed this appeal – measure of restraint remained the same, and Mr Amirkhanov will be under house arrest till 5 July.