It took Sergey Novoselov, investigator from Orenburg, two days to conduct additional check based on the complaint of Denis Belyanin, “Krylya Sovetov” football fan from Orenburg, on applying illegal physical violence against him by law-enforcement officers. For two days Mr Novoselov did not perform a single checking activity and managed to pass only a new ruling refusing to initiate criminal proceedings, which word for word copies the previous refusal, declared illegal by Deputy Head of the Investigative Department.
As we have previously reported , on 4 October of this year a criminal case regarding the crime under item ‘a’, part 3, Article 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“abuse of office using violence”) was initiated regarding the fact of the battery of “Krylya Sovetov” football club fans.
This criminal case was opened with regard to the following events. On 2 September of last year in Orenburg in the framework of the 11th Tour of the National Football League a game between local team “Orenburg” and “Krylya Sovetov” from Samara took place. In the very end of the game an incident between the visitant football fans and law-enforcement officers occurred.
Numerous videos of the indecent were loaded in the Internet, one of them features law-enforcement officers putting the football fans faces against the wall with feet spread apart and kick them and beat them with truncheons. It is seen in the video record that the football fans did not offer resistance and did not attempt to flee.
Lawyers with the Committee Against Torture, having examined these video records, concluded that the actions of the law-enforcement officers involve elements of crime under Article 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“abuse of office using violence and special equipment”). Regarding this on 8 September human rights defenders applied to the Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Orenburg region with a crime report.
On 11 September, human rights defenders also applied to the regional Investigative Department, but this time in the interests of a specific victim – “Krylya Sovetov” fan Denis Belyanin.
Denis Belyanin from Samara applied to the Committee Against Torture for legal assistance on September 6. He reported on what happened to him on 2 September at the Orenburg stadium: “After the law enforcement officers brought me beyond the audience sector, they forced me to stand on my knees, press my head against the concrete wall and my arms behind my back. After some time, I was told to stand up. When I started standing, they hit me from two sides with truncheons and feet. I felt strong pain and my feet became numb as a result of the beating”.
According to Belyanin, he and several fans from Samara were taken to the City Police Department where they were forced to stand with their head pressing against the wall, feet spread apart and arms behind their backs. According to Denis, he was released only after he signed a document stating that he had no claims against the police officers.
When he returned to Samara, Denis applied to City Clinical Hospital No.1 named after Pirogov, where the doctors registered “a bruise, a hematoma of the left ankle-joint and foot”.
A month after the incident a criminal case was initiated regarding the fact of the battery of “Krylya Sovetov” football club fans by law-enforcement officers. On 10 October Denis Belyanin applied to the investigative Department for the South Administrative District of Orenburg of the Investigative Committee of Russia for the Orenburg with a motion requesting to declare him a victim, however, investigator Sergey Novoselov refused to do it.
On 30 October investigator Sergey Novoselov issued a refusal to initiate criminal proceedings based on the fact of Denis Belyanin’s battery. However, on 21 December Deputy Head of the Investigative Department quashed this refusal, having pointed out that the “the refusal to initiate criminal proceedings was issued prematurely”. The materials were sent back to investigator Novoselov for additional check.
Yesterday, lawyers with the Committee Against Torture received a copy of another refusal to initiate criminal proceedings, which, as it turned out, was issued by investigator Novoselov back on 23 December of last year, two days after the beginning of the new check.
Having studied the material of additional check, human rights defenders came to the conclusion that the investigator did not carry out any new checking activities, and the text of another “refusing” ruling repeats the previously passed ruling word for word, including the mistakes in the text.
“I cannot explain the line of investigator Novoselov’s behavior with anything else but his demonstrative reluctance to work on this case. Instead of conducting a proper check, he, without hesitation, simply copies the text of the previous “refusing” ruling, which was, by the way, quashed by the department superiors as illegal, and passes the identical ruling. I’m surprised by the inaction of Mr Novoselov’s department superiors – no reaction to his escapades, – lawyer with the Committee Against Torture Denis Iskhakov, representing Denis Belyanin’s interests, comments. – Apart from the fact that we will definitely appeal against this obviously illegal ruling, we will apply to the superiors of the regional investigative department with a request to bring investigator Novoselov and his management to disciplinary responsibility, as well as to transfer the materials for the check to another department”.