Today, the Shakhunsky District Court of the Nizhny Novgorod region holds the first court hearing of the criminal case with regard to former investigative officer of the Department of the Interior for the Shakhunsky District Andrey Tumanov, who is charged with committing a crime under item “a” part 3 Article 286 of the Criminal Code of the RF (“abuse of office with the use of violence”). The interests of victim Denis Kramchaninov will be represented by lawyer with the Committee for the Prevention of Torture Danil Chendemerov.
(Photo: Denis Kramchaninov)
As we have previously reported, Denis Kramchaninov applied to the Committee Against Torture in July 2010. At that time he told the human rights defenders that he was severely beaten by a local police officer who was forcing the young man to sign a false self-accusation of committing a theft.
As Kramchaninov reported in his explanation, in the evening of 15 July 2010 he was brought from his home to the police department of Shakhunya town. Inside the office premises the police officer demanded that the guy confessed of a street theft, after that he hit him several times with his fists against the head, pressed his fingers with pliers, and, having put the gas mask on the young man, made him do knee bends. The battery and torture lasted about two hours, after that Denis yielded and agreed to sign a full confession, which was dictated to him by the police officer. When in the evening of the same day the young man applied to the Shakhunskaya District hospital doctors diagnosed him with a cerebral concussion and registered some hematomas on his body.
The criminal case on theft initiated against Denis was dismissed in a short time due to failure to prove the young man’s guilt.
For almost seven years human rights defenders were insisting on opening the criminal case based on Denis torture report: during this time ten refusals to initiate criminal proceedings were issued, subsequently they were declared illegal and quashed. In August of last year lawyers with the Committee for the Prevention of Torture applied to the European Court of Human Rights in the interests of Denis Kramchaninov.
On 29 May of this year the criminal case was opened with regard to former investigative officer of the Department of the Interior for the Shakhunsky District Andrey Tumanov, who is accused of committing a crime under item “a” part 3 Article 286 of the Criminal Code of the RF (“abuse of office with the use of violence”).
The preliminary investigation of the criminal case took about two months and after the assertion of the indictment by the Prosecutor it was sent to court for evaluation on its merits.
“Andrey Tumanov, who is charged with abuse of office, does not admit his guilt. During the interrogation he did not provide any testimony against himself and refused to tell anything to the investigator, using his right provided by Article 51 of the Constitution of Russia. Possibly, he will provide his version of events during the judicial proceedings”, – human rights defender Danil Chendemerov, representing the interests of the victim, commented.