The Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Nizhny Novgorod region has satisfied the complaint of the lawyer of INGO «The Committee Against Torture» referring to the inappropriate investigation of the criminal case based on the fact of torturing Oleg Krayoushkin from Pavlovo by the police officers. Based on the results of the complaint examination, the inaction of the investigator and Head of Pavlovsky Interdistrict Investigative Department of the Russian Federation for the Nizhny Novgorod region was declared illegal and the guilty party was held responsible.
As we have previously reported, in September 2012 a businessman from Pavlovo city Oleg Krayushkin applied to the INGO «Committee Against Torture» for legal assistance. The man alleges that on 11 September 2012 he was subjected to torture by police officers with the purpose of obtaining false statements, including against himself.
According to Mr Krayushkin, following numerous demands to confess to stealing a sawmill, the policemen forced the applicant to take off his boots and to kneel – and started hitting him with a truncheon on his feet. The applicant also states that one of the police officers occasionally hit him with his palms in the ears, face, and groin area. Two hours later the officers, having failed to obtain a confession statement, took Oleg to a temporary detention facility of Sosnovskoye district police department, where, following his lawyer’s request, a forensic medical expert examined the man and recorded hematomas on his feet in the relevant medical report.
Only in a year, in August 2013, a criminal case under Item «a» Part 3 of Article 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation was initiated (abuse of office including violence) based on applying torture against Oleg Krayoushkin by unidentified police officers in office №4 of Department 6 of the Criminal Investigations Directorate of the Ministry of the Interior of the Nizhny Novgorod region.
Up to the present moment the criminal case has been suspended four times. In addition, if these previous rulings were denounced by the Prosecutor’s Office and the management of the Investigative Department on an independent basis, the last one was denounced after the complaint of lawyers of the Committee Against Torture, representing the interests of Oleg Krayoushkin.
«In our complaint we noticed that the criminal investigation never performed elementary investigative activities, like the face-to-face interrogation between the victim and the main suspect, a number of documents, confirming Krayoushkin’s version, have not been added to the criminal case materials, some persons involved in the incident, have not been established or interrogated», – lawyer of the Committee Against Torture Ilya Khorshev comments.
Based on the results of the human rights defenders’ complaint examination, Head of Pavlovsky Interdistrict Investigative Department Yermolayev was held responsible for violations committed in the course of this case investigation. At the present time the investigation of the criminal case has been resumed.