Senior Investigator of the Zvenigovsky Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee for the Mary El Republic of Oksana Romanovskaya issued a ruling on indictment of the traffic police in the framework of the criminal case initiated based on the fact of the police officers applying violence against Valentin Aleksandrov from Morki settlement in 2012.
(Photo: Valentin Aleksandrov)
As we have previously reported, on 26 February 2013 citizen of Morki settlement Valentin Aleksandrov applied to the office of INGO «The Committee Against torture» in Mary El Republic; he claimed that the regional Traffic Police officers had beat him during the arrest and had broken his arm.
According to Valentin on September 17, 2012 he should have gone to a business trip to Arzamas (Nizhegorodskaya region) and taken part in a professional competition to the title «The best fire engine driver». That day early in the morning Valentin left home and drove his own car to his place of work in order to take his fire engine license. However when he drove past the «Liliya» trading center an officer of DMVTC demanded stopping. Having reminded that he had left his driver license at home Valentin chose a wrong way of saving the situation – he didn’t stop and drove home to get the documents.
Valentin drove into his yard and started for the documents when the police UAZ car came, two officers jumped out and caught up with the forgetful driver at the inner porch.
As Valentin tells one of the policemen grabbed his right arm and the other hit him in the face. The further beating continued along with swearing when Valentin fall down. As a final humiliation act they twisted his arms by force, put handcuffs on and then were careful to take him to the Central Regional Hospital of Morki. There a duty doctor wrote a medical examination act, where he stated that Valentin was sober. Next day on the basis of the primary examination forensic medical experts fixed that Valentin had a closed fracture of the left part of the left ulnar bone with a slight fraction(which is an injury of moderate severity), also bruises on the elbow joints, shoulders, chest, abrasions on the shins, the right forearm and the elbow joints.
A check was carried out by the senior investigator of the Inquiry Department of Committee of Inquiry in Mary El Republic V.V. Petukhov based on the fact of violence used by the officers of the Road Patrol Service; as a result he illegally refused to initiate a criminal action four times.
It is worth noting that during the court examination of the appeal against the last refusal of the investigator, the Mary El Republic Prosecutor Serge Ryumshin reacted to the application of lawyer of the Committee Against Torture Dmitry Yalikov and issued a request addressed to the head of the Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of Russia for the Mary El Republic on initiating criminal proceedings.
As a result on 11 November 2014 Zvenigovsky Interdistrict Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of the Mary El Republic a criminal case was opened under Article 286 (3) (a) of Russian Criminal Code (exceeding official powers with use of violence).
This investigation resulted in disappointing three illegal rulings on its dismissal, which Senior Investigator Oksana Romanovskaya issued and which the human rights defenders were appealing against to the Prosecutor’s Office over and over again.
Having examined the materials of the criminal case dismissed by investigator Romanovskaya on 11 February of this year, the Prosecutor of the Morkinskiy District of the Mariy El Republic Nadezhda Opikova declared the case dismissal to be illegal and issued a request to the Head of the Zvenigovskiy Investigative Department in which she pointed out that in the course of the criminal investigation a grave red tape was committed and that led to violation of Valentin Aleksandrov constitutional rights. Moreover, the Prosecutor considered that the evidence collected in the course of the criminal case investigation give sufficient grounds to accuse one of the police officers of committing crime under item «а» Part 3 Article 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
Yesterday lawyer of the Committee for Prevention of Torture Danil Chendemerov, representing the interests of Valentin Aleksandrov, received a copy of the ruling on involvement of the traffic police officer in this criminal case as a defendant.
«When I was driving to the investigator with Valentin Aleksandrov the latter could not believe that the charges against the former traffic police officer, who broke his arm, will be brought in the end. Well, for four years of struggle anyone could lose one’s faith in justice. During this time Valentin’s state of health deteriorated a lot, he grew lean and a couple of times he suggested that we stop working on his case as he thought it was futile. However, we did not surrender; we supported Valentin as we could and continued our work. And here is the intermediate result: the charges are brought, investigator Oksana Romanovskaya is committed to bring the case to court and in short time we are going to familiarize with the materials of the criminal case. The work is far from over, as it is necessary to investigate the role of the second traffic police officer who participated in Aleksandrov’s apprehension», – Chendemerov emphasizes.