The Committee against Torture has started investigating into the mysterious death of a youngster from Dzerzhinsk who was taken to the police station.

   On 15 February 2010 two people from Dzerzhinsk claiming police abuse applied to the Committee against Torture. Alexander Shushin told human rights defenders that on 6 February 2010 he went to a night club with his friend Oleg Levin. On the way there they were detained by the police patrol. The friends were taken to the 2^nd police station of Dzerzhinsk and led to different rooms. According to Alexander, the police seized his cell phone and then cruelly beat him up for no reason. He does not know what the police was doing with Oleg.  In the morning on 6 February 2010 he was set free, he had no idea whether Oleg had been released as well. In the daytime Alexander learnt that his friend had been found dead in the staircase of the block of flats in Pirogova Street in Dzerzhinsk. According to Svetlana Petrova, late Oleg Levin’s mother, 20-year old Oleg lived separately from her. In the morning on 6 February 2010 she got a call from the police and was summoned to identify her son. When she looked at the body she immediately noticed an abrasion on his forehead. Later, when Oleg’s body was delivered from the morgue, the relatives noticed bruises on his knees. People living in the block of flats where the body was found explained that Oleg had been lying there since 5 a.m. Then someone dragged him inside to the staircase. Only around 10 a.m. when Oleg asked for help someone called in the police. By the time the police arrived the guy was dead. It is not clear what caused his death. How did he appear in a block of flats several kilometers away from the police station? Why didn’t he go home instead of wandering into a block of flats on the other end of the city?  How did he obtain the injuries? There are more questions than answers. The victim’s parents and Alexander Shushin applied to the Dzerzhinsk Prosecutor’s Office. Perhaps, the official investigation will elucidate the mysterious case.  So far, judging by Alexander Shushin’s statement, officers of the 2^nd police station deny detaining Oleg Levin.  The Public Investigation department of the Committee against Torture intends to study the results of the check that is being conducted by the Interdistrict Investigation department under the Prosecutor’s Office and to find eye-witnesses of Oleg Levin’s and Alexander Shushin’s detention.