After almost two years the Investigative Committee of Russia resumed a pre-investigative check with regard to Vitaly Myasoyedov, former Head of the Criminal Investigation of Solnechnogorsk, the Moscow region. He may be involved in the death of Farrukh Urozov from Tajikistan which happened at the police department in September 2014. In addition, “appropriate response measures” were taken with regard to the officer of the Chief Directorate of the Procedural Control of the Investigative Committee of the RF for inadequate examination of the previous complaint of human rights defenders.
As we have previously reported, in 2014 Farrukh Urozov lived, with his brother Ilkhom Alikhonov, in Solnechnogosrk, Moscow region, where they worked at various construction sites. In the evening of 17 September 2014 Ilkhom returned home; his brother Farrukh Urozov was asleep. In ten minutes time several Patrol-and-Guard Service officers entered his home together with the brothers’ neighbor.
According to Ilkhom, having applied physical violence, the police officers woke up his brother, handcuffed him and took him to the police department. As Ilkhom learned later, Farrukh was detained upon suspicion of using violence against six-year-old daughter of their neighbor.
Ilkhom explained that after a while police officers came up to his house again and this time they took him together with his mate Firdavs Sattorov to the same police department. There Alikhonov heard the loud cries of his brother, who was in one of the office rooms. For some time he even managed to see Farrukh through a cracked door: the brother was sitting on the floor with hands tied, a lot of bruises and scratches were clearly seen on his face, there was blood on the floor.
Early in the morning of 18 September Ilkhom and Firdavs were released from the police department. Several hours later they learned that Farrukh Urozov died.
According to the forensic medical examination Urozov’s body and limbs were hit over 75 times. In the course of the battery 12 ribs were broken. Mr Urozov died of multiple traumas and strangulation.
Criminal case with regard to the fact of Urozov’s death was immediately initiated; one of the police officers was detained and arrested. In the course of investigation the involvement of two other Criminal Investigations Department officers in Urozov’s death was established: later on they were also arrested and put into the pre-trial detention facility.
In the framework of the investigation the materials with regards to Head of the Criminal Investigations Department Vitaliy Myasoyedov were severed. According to the results of the check in relation to him in September 2015 the investigation came to conclusion that there was no element of crime in his actions.
Myasoyedov’s subordinates failed to escape from responsibility – on 15 June 2016 the Solnechnogorsky District Court passed an indictment with relation to three investigative officers who beat Farrukh Urozov to death at the police department. On 27 October 2016 the appellate court upheld the ruling.
Lawyer of the Committee for the Prevention of Torture Dmitry Piskounov tells about the work performed in the case of Vitaly Myasoyedov: “For one and a half years we have submitted 10 complaints to the Prosecutor’s Office and the Investigative Committee bodies with a request to quash the illegal refusal to initiate criminal proceedings. In our complaints, we pointed out at numerous gaps and faults in the materials of the check. For example, according to the witnesses’ testimony, Myasoyedov several times entered the office room where Urozov was located. Myasoyedov could observe what was going on in the room, he could supervise the actions of his subordinates, he could himself take part in the beating. Expert examination found micro particles on the clothes of deceased Urozov, and these particles were in many respects similar to the material from which Myasoyedov’s boots were made. How these micro particles appeared on the clothes the investigators failed to explain. In addition, while the convicted police officers were beating up the detained, Myasoyedov remained in his office in the next room till morning and could pay a visit to them any moment. After the criminal case was initiated, Myasoyedov was arrested and taken to the investigative isolation facility, shortly after that he was released, since the investigation deemed that he was not involved in the committed crime”.
On 1 June 2017, the Investigative Committee of Russia established that the refusal to initiate criminal proceedings was taken without sufficient grounds and requested that the check is conducted by the Chief Directorate of the Investigative Committee of Russia for the Moscow region. We hope that this time the investigation will objectively assess previously collected proofs of possible involvement of Myasoyedov in the committed crime.