Yesterday the Essentuki city court dismissed the complaint of Interregional Committee Against Torture Chairman Igor Kalyapin about omissions of officials of the Main Administration of the Russian Ministry of the Interior for the North-Caucasian Federal Territory under an abduction case.

You may remember that the complaint was triggered by the fact that Russian law enforcement authorities, and namely, the Russian Investigation Committee and Main Investigation Administration of the Russian Interior Ministry for the North-Caucasian Federal Territory were basically stonewalling the investigation into Chechen resident Islam Umarpashayev’s abduction and long-term unlawful detention at the Chechen OMON base.

The hearing was re-scheduled twice, and finally, the court delivered a decision. It took judge Danilova 6 hours to prepare the part of the judgment giving facts and reasons for the decision.

 “The so called motivation part lists all investigative activities carried out under Umarpashayev’s case which our organization is supporting in court. We will obtain a copy of the judgment on October 17 and will need plenty of time to study it”, said Igor Kalyapin.

According to Kalyapin, when he lodged a complaint about omissions of officials of the Russian Interior Ministry for the NCFT, he hoped that it would be sustained. He is convinced that law enforcement bodies do not execute investigator Sobol’s orders by not ensuring appearance of policemen at interrogations. Kalyapin underlined that Sobol himself agreed with the facts listed in the complaint in part.

Although the applicant has lost the lawsuit, he is satisfied with the outcome. “The result of today’s proceedings is favourable for Sobol, in the first place. Until now the Chechen Interior Ministry staff has considered Sobol their major foe because he “was poking his nose into their business”, but after the complaint accusing him of omissions such argument becomes inconsistent”, explained Kalyapin.

In the claimant’s opinion, everyone else, but for the criminals, is the gainer. “I believe that these proceedings have increased the chances of perpetrators’ identification and prosecution”, added the human rights defender.

According to Kalyapin, the investigator is totally satisfied with the outcome of the proceedings. “In the first place, he has won it, and secondly, now there is something he can refer to when he is accused of excessive vigour”, clarified Kalyapin.