On January 25, 2013 another two police officers of Avtozavodsky district, suspected of assault and battery of detained, were arrested under the order of the Soviet district court. Putting under house arrest till February 23, 2013 was selected as a measure of restraint for the accused, as reported by the press-service of the regional court of Nizhny Novgorod. At presence in all 5 policemen of Avtozavodsky district were indicted, measures of restraint for them were selected.
A day earlier, on January 24, the special prosecutors of the investigative department of the Investigative Committee RF in Nizhegorodskaya region arrested Evgeny Telenkov and Sergey Nikolayev, the detective inspectors of the police department №1 MIA RF in Nizhny Novgorod (Avtozavodsky district). Then they were accused of the crime provided for by paragraph «а» of part 3 of article 286 of CC RF. The accused didn’t admit their fault and refused to give evidence invoking the right provided for by article 51 of Constitution RF.
It is recalled that on January 23 Sergey Alimov, the chief criminal investigation officer of this police department, and Ivan Vechkanov, the deputy chief, were put under home arrest. And on January 18 Vladimir Samsonov, the deputy chief officer of the same PD, was arrested.
According to the investigation “on the 3rd of March 2012 six police officers used physical force illegally on two citizens in order to make them confess in allegedly committed crimes having to do with carjacking”, as published at the Web site of investigative department of the Investigative Committee RF in Nizhegorodskaya region.
The events preceding this high-profile case against policemen are the following. In April 2012 Nizami Gasanov and Elshan Zamanov appealed for help to Nizhegorodsky department of the Committee against torture – they claimed to be tortured by policemen.
The head of the department of inquiry of Nizhny Novgorod branch of IRPO “Committee against torture” Dmitry Utkin commented upon the events: «We welcome the actions of the investigators of the Investigative Committee who prosecute crooked policemen. The case gathers pace every day, it’s known that the investigators have planned a series of investigative actions. And the measures chosen for the accused will guarantee their hundred-percent appearance at the very first demand of the investigative group, while that caused problems before».
Aleksey Matasov, the lawyer of the Committee against torture who represents the victims in court, noted in his turn: «Now that 5 policemen have been indicted we have a serious concern about life and health of the victims. The policemen enlisted support of their colleagues including the top authorities of the Main Department of Ministry of Internal Affairs of the region. One can’t predict what measures they may take to bring pressure upon Zamanov and Gasanov. The reaction to the application of the investigator for granting state protection of the victims causes special anxiety. As Yury Elantsev noted during the court session, the answer from the state protection centre was that they didn’t protect criminals. The position is strange at the very least taking into account that the legal proceedings against Zamanov and Gasanov were dropped. And it was exactly Avtozavodsky policemen who did it».