Investigators in the Krasnodar Territory will check the complaint of local citizen Evgeny Skidanov about the police torture: according to him, in November of last year several police officers tortured him with electricity, beat him up and hanged him on the bar, forcing to confess of a murder of a woman. The district investigator has illegally refused to initiate the criminal case on torture – now the investigators on major cases with the regional department will deal with checking of this complaint.
In November of last year, Evgeny Skidanov from Vyselki settlement in the Krasnodar Territory applied to the Committee Against Torture for legal assistance. He told human rights defenders that Natalya Grozina, who worked for him as a menial at his farm, disappeared without a trace in January 2014. With this regard he was numerously questioned by the criminal investigations officers but no official charges by law-enforcement authorities were raised.
However, on 14 November 2019, the police officers apprehended him at his workplace and took him to the Department of Interior for the Vyselki District. There, according to Skidanov, he was taken to the basement and the police officers started to torture him, demanding that he not only confessed of murder of Natalya Grozina, but also indicated the place where she was buried. According to Evgeny, he was hanged on the bar between two tables, the wire was connected to his toes and electrical current was switched on, the police officers were choking him with a plastic bag, hitting his face at the same time. Despite this, he did not confess.
On 15 November, Evgeny Skidanov was apprehended as suspected of murder of Natalya Grozina. On the next day he applied to the Investigative Committee with a complaint about the police torture.
According to medical forensic examination which was performed a week after Evgeny Skidanov’s apprehension, he was diagnosed with the following bodily injuries: “A bruise in the area of lower jaw on the right, extravasation of the front surface of the middle third of the left shoulder. The prescription of these injuries is no less than 7 days”.
Senior investigator of the Investigative Department for the Vyselki District of the Investigative Committee of the RF for the Krasnodar Territory Roman Nazarov t three ties refused to initiate a criminal case on tortures. These rulings were immediately quashed by the department superiors.
After repeated applications of lawyers with the Committee Against Torture to the superiors of the regional Investigative Department, starting from 26 February 2020, the investigators of the first department for major cases of the Investigative Committee of the RF for the Krasnodar Territory became involved with checking the Skidanov’s complaint.
Today, Deputy Head of regional Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee Sergey Solntsev informed human rights defenders and Skidanov’s relatives about it.
“We hope that the new investigator will treat all the nuances of this case with great attention and will perform an effective and all-round check of Skidanov’s torture complaint, – lawyer with the Committee Against Torture Sergey Romanov comments. – I hope he will also pay attention that Skidanov was illegally apprehended and kept for seven hours at the police department”.