On 28 August 2013 the regional TV broadcaster «Oren-TV» in Orenburg reported that Andrey Bishev was brought by the police to the intensive care unit of Perevolotsk district hospital. The man was in extremely critical condition. Having regained consciousness after a surgery, Andrey told the Committee Against Torture lawyers that he had been beaten up by police officers.
(Photo: Andrey Bishev)
According to the applicant, on 21 August 2013 he was at home, and in the evening had a quarrel with his mother. She called the district police officer to calm her son down, for he had repeatedly started domestic brawls before.
The police arrived quickly. As Mr Bishev states, the district police officer, police major Anatoliy Lagaev, came with a colleague of his from a neighboring village. They took the brawler into their car and drove outside the village. After a short ride they arrived to a grain storage. There the policemen ordered Andrey to get out of the car, knocked him down and began beating him with a truncheon. Andrey remembers that the battery went with lecturing, such as «everyone is sick and tired of your behavior». The «awareness session» lasted for several minutes until Andrey’s damaged nose started bleeding too much. The policemen gave the man a cloth for him not to stain the car, and threw him into the trunk. Then the officers came back to the village to question Andrey’s neighbours concerning the quarrel. Only after that the policemen took the man to Perevolotsk District Department of the Interior of Orenburg region.
According to the victim, he was left alone for almost 24 hours in a cell of the police department temporary detention facility. The man felt bad and repeatedly asked for medical assistance. When an ambulance at last arrived, paramedics saw the critical condition of the man in the cell and asked police officers to let them take Andrey to hospital. But the policemen for some obscure reason refused to let him get proper emergency treatment. In the end, after several pain killing injections and a couple of pills the man was left fighting for his life alone.
An ambulance was again called only on August 22, late in the evening, when a next police officer started his shift. Paramedics arrived to discover that the man had been beaten up so severely that he could hardly move or speak.
Mr Bishev was urgently admitted into Perevolotsk district hospital. The man was diagnosed with numerous haematomas, skin abrasions, and internal bleeding with rupture of internal organs. He underwent two complicated surgeries. The situation was so difficult that local surgeons had to ask specialist from Orenburg for help. Only with their joint efforts the doctors managed to restore Andrey’s badly damaged organs.
The Head of the Orenburg regional branch of the INGO «Committee Against Torture» Sergey Babinets comments on the situation: «It is for the investigation to find out if the statements given by Andrey Bishev truthful or not. We will as well carry out a public investigation into the circumstances in question. If it is established that the grave injuries that have almost killed the man were inflicted by police officers, we will make every effort to ensure that those responsible are brought to justice. One can not commit crimes fighting crime. Unlawful acts of a public official can not be justified in anyway. In the situation in question – by anti-social behaviour of the detainee».