Judge of the Krasnogorsk City Court Maria Andreykina satisfied the request of the investigator to select a measure of restraint in the form of taking into custody with regard to ex-police officer Spartak Sevumyan, charged with the battery of Boris Martynov, who was apprehended by Drug Law Enforcement police officers in November 2018.
Boris Martynov applied to the Committee Against Torture in March 2019 with a complaint about having been beaten up by the police officers in November of last year, who apprehended him on suspicion of drug dealing. Boris said that in the afternoon of 1 November 2018 he and some acquaintances of his used heroin in a forest belt in the outskirts of Krasnogorsk. According to Boris, after they took drugs, three drunk men appeared in the lawn and, without a single word, they started to beat him up together with his acquaintances. When the young men were already lying on the ground, the men explained that they were the police officers. Boris Martynov and three acquaintances of this were taken to the Drugs Control Department of the Directorate of the Interior of Russia for the urban district of Krasnogorsk.
“I was taken into the room and made to sit on a chair. So we sat, still handcuffed. Some officers were constantly coming and going, it was a kind of chaos. At some moment some of the police officers brought a bottle of vodka, they were drinking”, – Boris remembers.
Since Boris Martynov felt bad after apprehension, a medical ambulance was called and it arrived at 7 p.m. Having inspected Martynov, the medics established a preliminary diagnosis “vegetative dystonia syndrome”; no injuries were registered in the medical documents.
“After the medics left, the battery continued. The investigative officers were beating us up because we did not tell them who purchased heroin. One of them was walking around the department with a bottle of beer, he used to come near us and hit us in the face. My nose bled. At some point during the night from 1 to 2 November, the investigative officers said: “Take everything out of your pockets”. I checked the pocket of my jacket, and take out a small rolled plastic bag. I realized immediately they planted the drug. I threw it on the table, saying: “What are you doing? You know perfectly well this is not mine”. All of them, there was a whole crowd there, started to shout at me: “So?! Is this yours?!” I realized they would continue beating me up, and the pain was already intolerable, so I told them “Well, if you decided so, then, it’s mine”. When I gave consent that “this was mine”, the beating stopped. They even offered me some vodka. We drank a glass each, and I fell asleep on a chair”, – that’s how, according to Boris, the events of that night developed.
In the morning of 2 November, Boris was given a chance to call his mother and report his whereabouts. In about an hour, Natalya Martynova arrived at the police station, and at first she did not even recognize her son: “On the second floor of the Department of the Interior a police officer led out my son. Boris could hardly stand, he bent and was holding his ribs. His face was swollen and all in blood, hematomas could be seen. The blood was fresh, and his clothes were also in blood. He asked me to call an ambulance. I managed to make a photo of my son on the camera of my mobile phone”.
On the same day, at 12.40, Martyov was delivered for inspection to the traumatological department of the Krasnogorskaya City Hospital #1, where he was diagnosed with: “Fracture of VI rib on the right. Contusion of soft tissues of the face. Bruises of both eyepits, color – violet. Extravasation in the left eye sclerae”.
Natalya Martynova applied to the Department of Internal Security of the Ministry of the Interior of Russia for the Moscow region with a complaint against the actions of the police officers.
With regard to Martynov himself a criminal case was opened under part 2 of Article 228.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Illegal sale of narcotics”). Due to Boris’s registered traumas, the investigators severed the materials on abuse of office into separate proceedings.
On 24 June 2019, the investigator of the Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for the Moscow region Ekaterina Chutkova initiated a criminal case under item “a” of part 286 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“abuse of office using violence”).
Among other things, it is said in the ruling: “Unidentified by the preliminary investigation Drug Law Enforcement police officers with the Department of the Interior of Russia for Krasnogorsk, having an intent to commit actions clearly going beyond their authority, which they don’t have a right to commit under any circumstances without sufficient grounds, illegally applied physical force against Boris Aleksandrovich Martynov, who was apprehended under suspicion of having committed a crime under Article 228 of the Criminal Code of the RF, namely, they hit him in the area of head and body with blunt objects no less than three times”.
On 14 November, former investigative officer of Drug Law Enforcement Section with the Department of the Interior for Krasnogorsk Spartak Sevumyan was apprehended under suspicion of having committed this crime. On the same day, he got involved in this criminal case in the capacity of a defendant. On 15 November, judge of the Krasnogorsk City Court of the Moscow region Maria Andreykina satisfied the request of the investigator on selecting the measure of restraint in the form of taking into custody with regard to Spartak Sevumyan till 24 November, when the period of the preliminary investigation of the case will be over.
The defense lawyers of the defendant objected against his taking into custody, proposing to select the house arrest. Victim Boris Martynov himself informed the court about his safety concerns. The court indicated in its ruling that “Sevumyan, having a long record of law-enforcement service, has special knowledge of operational and search activities, he knows the addresses of the victims and the majority of witnesses for the criminal case, in the period of the preliminary investigation he repeatedly travelled to the territory of other RF subjects and the other state, as well, the court finds convincing the investigator’s arguments that Sevumyan may abscond from preliminary investigation and trial”.
“We are satisfied with the fact that former investigative officer Sevumyan is taken into custody. However, we still have concerns over Boris safety, since one of the persons who beat him up, has never been identified and, most probably, continues his work in the Krasnogorsk police”, – lawyer with the Committee Against Torture, representing Martynov’s interests, Petr Khromov, comments.